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mold?
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but...we live in a basement apartment in which the air quality is not the best, and in the summer especially it is just DAMP. Papers curl, the towels never dry, and packages of crunchy things almost instantly get soft and icky. We run a dehumidifier, but there's a limited amount of good it can do.
We spend a lot of time battling mildew in the shower, and we've also had a couple of instances of mold growing very quickly and in odd places. Last night, for example, I opened the dishwasher full of clean, slightly damp dishes and removed a dish. Closed it up again. Opened it this morning and there was a spot of mold growing on a clean coffee cup (on the outside - not where any food would have been). Ew.
Anyway, I'm worried that this is a sign that there are mold spores just floating freely through the air we breathe all the time. (Doesn't help that the bedroom and living room have wall-to-wall carpet.) Am I just being paranoid? And if there is mold living in the walls and under the carpets, how bad is that for our health? We thought we were going to be moving to a new, above-ground house next month, but that may have fallen through, so we're now looking at spending another year here. I worry about my lungs. But it's a rental, so it's not like we can rip up the carpet and bring in a mold abatement team. Any thoughts?
Re: mold?
You can buy a kit to test for mold and what kinds. I mean you already have proof of mold but a test showing a positive for mold, kind and the amount could help lower the cost of rent. Or the landlord would have to fix the problem if it really bad.
If you are having any physical problems after living there (breathing, dizziness, headaches, or anything that happens when you are in your place for an extended period of time) go to the doctor.
Not sure what else you can do since I have never had this problem before.
I'd move.
For more info: http://www.cdc.gov/mold/basics.htm
Thanks, everybody! We are currently looking for a new place, so I'm crossing my fingers.
Thanks for posting the link to the CDC page, Magdala9 - it was actually sort of reassuring, in that it doesn't mention any long-term risks (cancer thirty years down the road, etc.).
In any case, we'll definitely mention this to our landlord, either for our own sakes or for the sake of whoever moves in after us.