Forensic Industrial Hygiene

Indoor Microbial Assessments

“Mould” or “Mold”?  FACTs operates in an international realm, and therefore, most of our literature and discussions use the international spelling for this classification of Fungi.

Indoor Moulds

There is no such thing as “toxic mould” and most home owners are sufficiently skilled to deal with moisture intrusion and mould colonization issues.  However, due to the mysterious nature of microbes, and media hype, frequently an expert is required to put things into perspective.  Read the following scientific discussions on “toxic mould.”

Mould: Concern or Nuisance?

Building Assessments for Indoor Moulds

Recent media has raised the indoor mould issue to a fevered pitch that is more science fiction than fact. 

Although most amateur mould inspectors (especially “Certified Mould Inspectors”) perform mould “testing,” such “tests” are virtually

always invalid and virtually never needed.  The “tests” usually produce useless and meaningless “data.”  Legitimate mould assessors rarely perform “testing” or sampling.  Instead, proper indoor mould assessments can be performed on the basis of a visual inspection.

The CDC and US EPA both caution against sampling for indoor moulds as being very rarely if ever needed.  Generally, only poorly trained “mould inspectors” such as home inspectors perform mould “testing.”  To see a public domain example of a “Critical Review” on mould testing click here. (This report was originally placed on the web by the client.)

Quantitative Human Assessments

not incumbent on the kind of mould present.  Regardless of the genus or species, the remediation actions are the same; therefore, there is nothing to be gained by knowing either.

In any event, legitimate mould experts can adequately identify the mould to genus level by merely looking at growth. 

So what does “toxic mould” look like anyway? Click HERE to find out!

Bulk Sampling

On the extremely rare occasions where air monitoring for mould is necessary, the process is lengthy and expensive.  It is statistically impossible to

to quantify the indoor spore loadings with fewer than 5 samples for each study area due to the lognormal distributions associated with such samples.  Furthermore, comparing indoor to out-door samples is more myth than science.

Legitimate sampling requires the establishment of data quality objectives and hypothesis testing.  Generally the cost to perform valid air tests for indoor spores is around $1,500.

Where colonizations of mould are identified, it is virtually never necessary to collect samples “to see what kind it is.”  The remediation actions are