Mold lives in every house and every yard, but is it really a growing menace that torments healthy homeowners? Experts say that, for most people, the microscopic fungi are no cause for alarm.
"You can go in any home -- any wall, any cabinet -- and swab that area. You're going to have mold because it's part of the environment," says David Bledsoe of Healthy Air, a company that specializes in eradicating indoor air pollution.
Mold spores continually float in and out of houses and other environments, and most lie dormant for years, Bledsoe said. But given the proper condition of excessive moisture, some spores germinate, which spurs mold growth on anything from wood and carpet to foods, making some people feel sick.
The lesson was something homeowner Gloria Grene learned the hard way. A broken pipe flooded her basement, and her plumbing problem quickly turned into a mold problem. Grene says the mold has affected her health.
"The moment I step into the house," she says, "I carry ... a tissue with me and my eyes start watering."
She says that, out of the house, she has more energy and less redness in the face but the symptoms return as soon as she returns home.
Dr. Stanley Fineman, an allergist in Atlanta, hears a lot about mold from his patients.
"About 35 percent of the population has allergies," Fineman explained. "In other words, [they have] a predisposition to develop an allergic sensitivity to a variety of things, including molds. And in those patients, we frequently see molds as a problem or trigger factor."
For those sensitive to molds, prolonged exposure can cause eye irritation, nasal stuffiness or wheezing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More severe reactions are possible in people with allergies, asthma, respiratory disease or a weakened immune system and include fever, shortness of breath or infection.
But Fineman worries that recent lawsuits over moldy homes and reports of "toxic mold" have fueled undue hysteria.
"We see a lot of patients who read articles or talk to other people and are really scared of the fact they might get sick from mold exposure," Fineman says.
While people need to know if they have a mold problem, they shouldn't obsess over it, Fineman advised.
"[For] the average person who goes into a room that has a high mold count ... it would be an irritant," Fineman says. "But it would be the same type of effect if they went into a room that had smoke."
The Environmental Protection Agency also plays down the hype surrounding the health threat of mold.
"I think the notion that this is some widespread epidemic in the United States is really overblown," says the EPA's Elissa Feldman.
So what should you do if you've got a moldy menace? Go to the source, Feldman says.
"If you have a mold problem, you have a moisture problem," Feldman explains. "If you have a moisture problem, you need to find out what it is and fix it."
According to the EPA, if you have more than 10 square feet of visible mold, it's time to call in a professional. But in modest cases, the answer can be as simple as a call to the plumber to fix leaky pipes, and a little soapy water.
The CDC reports a thorough cleaning with bleach and water removes most cases of growing mold.
Real estate investor Louie Prestigiacomo isn't alarmed by potential mold health effects. He's cleaning up a home overwhelmed by mold and plans to move in.
"I know that mold exists everywhere. It exists in nature and everybody's home," Prestigiacomo says. "It's just at a higher level here so we're going to eliminate it, then control the moisture, and I'll be fine with it."
by Cate Folsom
January 25, 2003
The street view of the house at 717 Hackberry Road in Omaha, stately and elegant like its Fairacres neighbors, reveals nothing of the controversy it has ignited.
 |
|
|
The house has pitted prominent Omaha physicians — former neighbors whose children once played together — against each other.
The two couples conducted a house transaction cordial enough that the dog stayed even though the owners changed.
But the good feelings unraveled weeks after the $670,000 sale was finalized.
Now the 3,597-square-foot house is home to no one. The families communicate through lawyers.
The cause of the conflict?
Mold.
The buyers allege that the sellers knew about extensive mold in the house at the time of sale and failed to disclose it. They say the mold and its smell have ruined their belongings and made the house unsafe for habitation.
They have sued the previous owners, a top-selling real estate agent, a longtime Omaha real estate company and their insurance company, seeking to undo the sale and be reimbursed $193,600 for personal property.
The defendants have denied doing anything wrong.
One of the two lawsuits led to a seven-day trial this month in Omaha. But the judge's ruling may not have ended the dispute.
How did a home sale come to this?
Drs. Richard and Margaret Tempero lived in the Hackberry Road house for more than two decades, starting in 1977.
They enjoyed entertaining and bought fresh flowers each week for the foyer.
Richard Tempero is a longtime oral surgeon in Omaha and a former chairman of the Nebraska Board of Health.
Margaret Tempero is a gastrointestinal cancer expert in San Francisco and former interim director of Omaha's Eppley Cancer Center. In 1999, Good Housekeeping magazine named her one of the top 318 cancer specialists for women.
Their two-story, white, masonry home - built in 1936 on a gently sloping, tree-lined 11/2-acre lot — has four bedrooms and five baths, marble countertops and a whirlpool tub, a wet bar and a sun room, front and rear staircases. It has a three-car detached garage and an in-ground swimming pool.
In 1999, Margaret Tempero accepted an endowed chair at the University of California at San Francisco and a post as deputy director of its Comprehensive Cancer Center. She moved to California in January 2000.
In March 2000, the house went on the market.
Dr. Thomas Poulton and his wife, Karen, a lawyer, were attracted to the house that May while preparing to return to Omaha after 12 years away.
Thomas Poulton is an anesthesiology professor and pediatric critical-care physician at the Nebraska Medical Center. He serves on Gov. Mike Johanns' child abuse task force.
Karen Poulton worked at the Boys Town National Institute before obtaining a law degree 10 years ago. She is a legal advocate for abused children.
They were familiar with Fairacres. During the '80s they lived at 6620 Underwood Ave., around the corner and up the hill from the Hackberry house. Their son, Michael, occasionally played with one of the Temperos' sons, also named Michael.
While house hunting in May and June 2000, the Poultons walked through the Hackberry house six to eight times.
During one walk-through, Karen Poulton said later, she noticed a faint smell, too vague to identify. Otherwise, she said, the house smelled fresh.
On June 23, 2000, the Poultons made an offer, about $130,000 less than the asking price of $799,711. In an addendum they also offered to adopt Molly, the Temperos' chocolate Lab, "as their own treasured family pet for the rest of her natural life and to provide her original family liberal visitation as they wish."
The Temperos accepted, and the Poultons took possession July 10, 2000.
On her first morning in the house, Karen Poulton said, she noticed a musty odor in the sun room. During the next week, the smell became more and more noticeable elsewhere. She said it kept her from ever sleeping a full night in the master bedroom. Even so, she said, they didn't consider leaving.
"It was our new home," she testified. "I just thought we would get on top of it."
Within weeks, the Poultons said, they began having persistent headaches, nosebleeds, coughs and other problems.
The Poultons tried to identify the source of the odor. They scrubbed walls, bleached and sealed a kitchen closet, removed carpeting. And they poured 4 inches of concrete over the sun room floor, hoping that would eliminate the musty odor.
They also discovered plug-in air fresheners near the sun room, cedar blocks in upstairs closets, and lava rocks in a furnace vent and under a kitchen desk.
Karen Poulton began storing their clean clothes in a car.
By late September, they informed the Temperos they planned to move out.
A week later, the Poultons consulted Martha Boss, a certified industrial hygienist. She toured the house and saw a pinkish-orange stain on the foyer wallpaper and a black growth in an upstairs walk-in closet. Both, she concluded, were mold.
What Boss saw and smelled alarmed her so much she recommended that no one enter the house without protective clothing and respiratory gear.
The Poultons moved to an extended-stay motel and later to another house.
Boss, principal toxicologist for URS Corp. in Omaha, oversaw mold testing in the house. In February 2001, she reported the results and outlined an extensive plan to address the problem.
The Poultons filed suit.
At one point in their efforts to reduce or remove odor, the Poultons consulted a firm that pumps ozone gas through houses to rid them of odors - and found that the company had treated the house in 1996.
They also discovered that work had been done numerous times to repair roof problems, water leaks and plaster damage.
The Poultons contend that the sellers knew or should have known about chronic moisture and mold problems but didn't disclose them.
They say information also was concealed by two real estate agents, Ken Jansen and his daughter, Bridget, and by the listing agency, N.P. Dodge Real Estate Sales.
The Poultons say nearly 5,000 personal items are lost.
"You can sit on the furniture, so in that sense it's usable," Karen Poulton testified. "However, the odor renders it extremely offensive, and in that regard I consider it unusable."
The Temperos denied that the house was defective when they sold it. Richard Tempero acknowledged noticing only an occasional "old house smell."
The Temperos also contend the Poultons were negligent in not having an inspection done.
The Temperos contend that the Poultons acted on bad advice and suggested they may have created problems by doing renovations and by halting maintenance tasks after moving out.
The Jansens and N.P. Dodge also denied
the allegations, and N.P. Dodge contended it should be released since
the Jansens are independent contractors.
Where the Poultons see fraudulent concealment, the Temperos see something else.
The Temperos hired painters and other contractors over the years to update and repair their home as needed to keep it in good condition, their attorney said.
When the roof leaked, they promptly called in a roofer. Bubbled plaster? They summoned a plasterer. Leaking pipes? A plumber was hired.
They noticed a pinkish-orange stain on the foyer wallpaper some time after having the area papered. They asked the installer about the stain and were told the wallpaper paste probably reacted with a cleanser.
They had ozoning done not because they noticed an odor but because Margaret Tempero's mother did. She was due for a visit, and Margaret wanted her to be comfortable.
The Poultons produced several people at trial who said they noticed a musty smell in the house before the sale. But only two of them - their housekeeper and Margaret Tempero's mother - testified that they had told the Temperos. Both said they mentioned the smell before the Temperos had the house ozoned.
After the ozoning, no one mentioned an odor again, so the Temperos assumed the problem had been resolved, said their attorney, Michael Mullin.
The Temperos' home inspection, conducted soon after the house was put on the market, made no reference to mold.
Why didn't the Poultons have their own inspection done?
"The home was marketed as 'pre-inspected,'" Thomas Poulton said after the trial. "That report did not indicate any problems with the home."
The Poultons' mold expert concluded that finding and eliminating all the mold would leave little of the house except for the excavated basement. The Temperos' expert countered that the Poultons' expert had exaggerated the problem and misled her clients.
"It is incredible that had these
conditions existed before the Poultons purchased the house, others would
not have noticed them, such as Realtors, visitors to the home and even
the Poultons themselves," wrote Dr. Ronald Gots of the International
Center for Toxicology and Medicine, Rockville, Md.
After nearly seven days of testimony, Douglas County District Judge James Gleason removed N.P. Dodge from the case and dismissed the claims against the Temperos and Jansens.
He said that the Poultons had opportunity to detect any odor before the sale and that the Temperos' repair work was "what would be expected of owners of a 70-year-old house."
"I'm convinced they did their best to keep and maintain their property," Gleason said.
The Poultons are reviewing their appeal options. They also are awaiting an appeal of a suit against their insurance company, which rejected their claim of personal property loss.
If they don't prevail, they said, the house and its contents will be demolished and removed.
"We are putting this behind us and getting on with our lives," Thomas Poulton said.
The Temperos continue their commuter marriage. Richard Tempero has an apartment in Omaha and flies to San Francisco frequently to visit his wife.
The Poultons live in a 5-year-old house within a mile of the Hackberry house. The new house cost $120,000.
They inspect the Hackberry property daily. Occasionally, they don protective clothing and respiratory masks and enter to inspect documents such as tax records.
Their belongings are kept just as they were when the couple lived there.
"It is extremely difficult to let go of personal possessions that represent our lives together," Karen Poulton said.
"Nobody died, we simply lost stuff,"
she said. "Although it is exceedingly difficult, much worse things
happen to people here in Omaha every day."
Mold facts
Insurers spent $1.3 billion on mold claims in 2001. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reported
10,000 pending mold cases last year, up 300 percent since 1999.
Mold grows nearly everywhere. Roughly 1,000 varieties have been
found in U.S. homes.
Some molds have practical value - in helping decompose organic
material (compost), fight illness (penicillin), develop flavors in foods
(bleu cheese).
In large quantities, some molds can cause health problems for
people with chronic respiratory disease, such as asthma, or suppressed
immune systems.
Setting standards for acceptable indoor mold exposure levels may
not be practical, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But it and the Environmental Protection Agency agree that mold problems
in buildings should be resolved to prevent the potential for health
problems.
