Guest guest Posted May 6, 2003 Report Share Posted May 6, 2003 PLEASE take me off your e-mail list. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 14, 2003 Report Share Posted May 14, 2003 BRUCE writes: . . . I got interested when the doctor told me he had 4 autoimmune patients (over a 20 year period) who all beat the disease. . . . Bruce, I'm curious by what is meant by "beat the disease." Most people who respond to conventional drug therapy live normal life spans. Most people who don't get treatment -- don't live normal life spans. Harper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 1, 2006 Report Share Posted May 1, 2006 , I have looked at quite a few samples of blown cellulose insulation from buildings and I even went to a factory that shreded the newspaper. I have never seen a moldy sample of cellulose insulation. Most likely, the lack of mold is due to the high percentage of borate and ammonium phosphate added (up to 30% I have heard). In addition to being a fire retardant, the borate is great mildewcide and pesticide. In a few very rare instances, I have found an insulation called Destex (possibly from the 60's) that was shredded cellulose without fire retardant. (One of the houses had had a serious attic fire!). Anyone with older cellulose attic insulation can easily test for the presence of fire retardant. Just take some of the insulation outside (away from anything combustible), hold it with a tweezer and light it with a match. If the insulation just smokes or ignites and then self extinguishes when the match is removed, there is fire retardant. If it explodes into flames (literally!), it's Destex and I would have it removed very carefully. If this cellulose gets wet, it can get moldy, but the fire retarded material should not be a problem unless all the retardant is washed out under a major, long-term roof leak. Of course, if you have lots of mold growing on the sheathing in an attic, some of the spores can be in the insulation (especially if the roof was replaced and the nails hammered) and the insulation should be removed by a vacuum truck. C. May, M.A., CIAQP May Indoor Air Investigations LLC 1522 Cambridge Street Cambridge, MA 02139 617-354-1055 www.mayindoorair.com www.myhouseiskillingme.com writes: > Message 1 > From: " erikmoldwarrior " erikmoldwarrior@... > Date: Sun Apr 30, 2006 2:09pm(PDT) > Subject: Re: Caring for Attic - JEFFREY MAY or other expert > > <zippy890@...> wrote: >> I have been VERY concerned about my attic >> for some time. The insulation (I thought) >> was blown in cellulose. It looks grey and >> lumpy, and just seems like it should be a >> mold haven. When I have been in the attic, >> it would be very hot and dusty with lumpy >> piles of this grey insulation everywhere. >> It was like a little vision of hell. >> >> But, upon closer inspection ! >> >> The insulation was not cellulose afterall. >> It is fiberglass, or rock wool, or something? >> We aren't exactly sure what it is frankly, >> but it wasn't cellulose. More importantly, >> however, it was very dry and clean. > Zippy > > > Lost, buried in the old messages, is an article about " Blown in > insulation " that was provided free of charge to low-income housing. > A lot of people took advantage of this service. > It turned out that the materials, which included old newspapers that > they were shredding, were moldy prior to processing. > I got to see some of this stuff and it matches your description. > > It didn't matter how good it looked, it was still bad. > Some of these places had to have the material sucked back out under > Hazmat protocols because it was making people ill. > Better get that insulation checked! > - > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 2, 2006 Report Share Posted May 2, 2006 " Jeff May " wrote: > > , > > I have looked at quite a few samples of blown cellulose insulation from buildings and I even went to a factory that shreded the newspaper. I have never seen a moldy sample of cellulose insulation. > > Most likely, the lack of mold is due to the high percentage of borate and ammonium phosphate added (up to 30% I have heard). In addition to being a fire retardant, the borate is great mildewcide and pesticide. > Jeff, if I remember correctly, in the instance that required remediation, the cellulose was moldy at the time of shredding and, of course, the toxins remained, although there was no mold growth after processing. - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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