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Comment by bflesch | Hacker News Reader

The airborne mycotoxin I was exposed to is a scientifically proven carcinogen and class A indoor toxin, confirmed by an official lab. It was direct cause of my eosinophilia/asthma/sinusitis. It is the biggest gaslighting ever because two people share a place and both have emergency hospital visits and nearly die but from totally different diseases in different areas of the body.

All the communities suggest you throw away everything once you leave a mold-infested place, but most can't afford that. Many keep their furniture and regret it.

I truly wish this experience upon the denialists so they can use it to gather the evidence they need. A proper cancer would've been easier because there is at least a support network and hospitals have a damn handbook for it.

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I’ve done that - moved out of a mold infested house into a brand new house and kept some but not all belongings. Can you elaborate on risks? What do I need to watch out for?

Mold can stick to some of the furniture even if it's not a large, visible spot. When mold developed on the wall behind your large wardrobe there's a good chance that the wooden back of the dressed caught a bit of it. You move to a new place and carry the spores with you. At worst the new place also has a humidity problem and the spores you brought accelerate the mold development process.

Anything that sat around a mold infested area is something you should look at closely, at least to proactively give it a thorough scrub and dry in a well ventilated area before bringing in the house.

An air filer with a real HEPA filter will help catch airborne spores but if you already have mold growth anywhere in the room you need to take care of that before blowing air all around.

I wouldn't worry if you have no symptoms. I'd advise to regularly monitor biomarkers of your immune system (monthly/quarterly bloodwork with vitamin D etc), take approriate supplements which take into account any genetic metabolism defects (MTHFR), and listen to your body, especially the magic tingling of your nose and any symptoms of seasonal allergy.

Generally a DIY HEPA filter and a CO2 monitor should be enough to keep good air in a home which does not have water damage. If you have ventilation then remember to swap your filters.

So this might not be the answer you were looking for, but from my digging into this ozone treatments can supposedly kill the mold spores but they are still able to somehow harm you when you breath them in. Mold is one of those things that is supposedly so bad to have around, even when dead in the furniture, can continue to harm you.

We have mold in my family's basement downstairs too and I run the ozone generator a lot to freshen the air. But unfortunately parents would never throw out the things.

If you have too much water in the basement a very easy fix that might work for you is to remove anything that blocks drainage on the outside of your house. E.g. there should be a strip of 1m all around your house where there is only earth or light crushed stones, but no tiles or plastic. I have seen two houses where there were tiles in the garden right up to the house wall, and the cellar was wet. Once the garden tiles outside directly next to the house wall were removed, the humidity from the cellar wall was able to evaporate to the outside air and the cellar got dry again.

It might be a very easy fix before you start buying expensive solutions. Maybe you have old pictures of the house before there were problems and you notice there was actually a strip of garden all around the house instead of concrete or tiles.

Be very cautious with ozone generators. Mold might or might not damage you but ozone will definitely damage you even at very low levels that you don't notice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone#Health_effects

Yes it's easy though to give plenty of time to let the ozone air out. The mold won't leave though, the ozone leaves after a few hours to 2 4 hours.

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