Re: Re: Help Again!!!! (reply) MOLD TESTING

[Guest guest]

=====================

From: " J. Page " <apage1@...>

Date: 2006/07/13 Thu AM 05:26:29 CDT

Subject: Re: [] Help Again!!!! (reply) MOLD TESTING

Medlin Minnie wrote:

> Can anyone tell me if the mold tests you buy at local hardware store

> really work well?

>

The mold tests from stores are actually pretty good!! I used one and had and

Environmental guy look at it. He was pretty impressed, especially for the

money. Felice (a newcomer to this site)

[Guest guest]

They suit my purposes too which are basically

just to get a *head count*. I just want to know

how much mold I have and where, so I can tell

where the trouble spots are and arrange to get

them cleaned up.

My goal is to be able to test any place in my

house in the hot, humid summer and catch less

than 4 spore per hour. I've read that is

considered healthy air quality.

Where I found a concerning amount of visible

mold, I took a swab and zip lock bag and send it

off but I rarely find visible mold around house

any more.

You need to know that you are unlikely to detect

stachybotrys by using culture plates. For that

you need to find visible mold and take swab

sample or do tape lift.

You can get even less expensive mold plates that

are tested by one of the most prominent

environmental clinics around from AEHF in Dallas.

You can get 4 for 100.00 which includes the kit

and the analysis. You just pay for the shipping

back to them.

The Dallas clinic shipped the first batch of

plates to me by ground transportation, when they

say they will send them two day express. So I

called them about it. They said throw them out

and they will send replacements which they did by

two day express which I have used. However in

stead of throwing the others away I hung on to

them. I've had them for two weeks now at room

temperature and none of them have grown anything

so they seem to be excellent quality, not

contaminated. I did one time buy Home Depot kit

and one had mold in the vial with the culture

medium in it. I called Pro Lab the

manufacturer's customer service line and they

said to throw it out and they would send a

replacement and they did, so as far as I have

used them I did get one unclean Home Depot sample

but none from Dallas center. However I have

probably used twice as many from Home Depot when

I did alot of testing a couple years ago. Now

that I know about the Dallas service, I will

probably use that, instead of Pro Lab but I have

not had any bad experience with them.

However I'm only using them to help me find areas

that need to be cleaned. I'm not going to use

information for court case or anything where

specificity of type of mold is going to be

important.

The three usual suspects around my house are

cladosporum, aspergillus and penicilim. My

doctor says it doesn't matter what kind of mold

it is, it is all dangerous is large enough

quantity, so I don't care what their *names* are

any more mostly. It's a little interesting but

that's about it.

--- felice <anupath14@...> wrote:

The mold tests from stores are actually pretty

> good!! I used one and had and Environmental

> guy look at it. He was pretty impressed,

> especially for the money. Felice (a newcomer

> to this site)

>

>

>