Mold Exposure Symptoms and When to Test in Allen
The symptoms mold exposure can bring on, who reacts hardest, and the point at which a sample in your Allen home is worth taking. One call books the test.
Monday to Saturday, 7 am to 6 pm. Free, no-obligation estimates.
- Accredited lab analysis
- Written report you can act on
- Testing only, never the removal
The Symptoms Mold Exposure Can Cause
Mold exposure can bring on sneezing and a runny nose, red eyes, skin irritation, sinus congestion, and a cough or wheeze, and in people sensitive to it an asthma attack.
None of those is unique to mold. The same list turns up with pollen, dust and a head cold, which is why a symptom on its own says little. What points at the house is the pattern: the symptoms ease when you are away for a few days and come back when you do, or they sit in one room, or they started after a leak. Mold exposure can trigger “asthma, allergic rhinitis, respiratory and fungal lung infections, sinus congestion, headaches, and skin irritation,” and it can bring on the chronic cough and fatigue that are easy to blame on something else. The EPA's page on mold and health sets out the same allergic and asthmatic effects.
The symptoms most often reported with indoor mold.
- Sneezing and runny nose
- Red eyes
- Skin irritation
- Sinus congestion
- Cough and wheeze
- Asthma flare-ups, headaches and fatigue
If that list reads like your last month, the question is not whether the symptoms are real but whether the air in the house is behind them. That is a question an air sample read by an accredited lab can answer and a guess cannot, and it is the reason this page exists.
Children, Older Adults and the Immunocompromised React Most
Children, older adults and anyone who is immunocompromised are the most susceptible to the health effects of mold exposure, and the chronically ill sit in the same group.
The source material this trade works from puts it plainly: immunocompromised people, the elderly and children are “especially susceptible to mold-related health effects,” and among adults the “immune-suppressed and chronically ill” are the ones most severely affected. A level of mold that a healthy adult shrugs off can keep a child coughing for weeks or set off an older relative's breathing.
These are the people who react most.
- Children, whose lungs and immune systems are still developing
- Older adults, the group the research calls the elderly
- Immunocompromised and chronically ill, the most severely affected of all
So when the person with the symptoms is in one of those groups, we treat the same house with more urgency and set the visit sooner rather than later.
Mycotoxin-Producing Species Carry the Larger Risk
Some molds, Stachybotrys chartarum among them, produce mycotoxins, and a mycotoxin-producing mold can pose a greater hazard over sustained exposure than a mold that only irritates or sets off an allergy.
Stachybotrys chartarum is the species people mean by black mold. The research this page rests on says such molds “may pose a greater hazard than allergenic or irritative molds,” and routine exposure to mycotoxin-producing molds has been tied to Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, bronchopulmonary aspergillosis and hypersensitivity pneumonitis. The American Industrial Hygiene Association stands behind the lab practice that names a species from a cassette.
Which species is in your walls is a lab question and not a visual one. For an Allen, TX home where toxic mold is the worry, the lab's species report is covered on the page about what species testing shows.
“Some molds such as Stachybotrys chartarum produce mycotoxins that may pose a greater hazard than allergenic or irritative molds.”
The research this trade works fromUnexplained Symptoms Are One of the Usual Triggers to Test
Unexplained symptoms are one of the usual reasons a mold test is ordered, alongside a musty odour, visible growth, a past leak or flood, a property sale and the end of a remediation.
Testing in this trade is “commonly triggered by real estate transactions, visible mold or musty odors, prior water damage, and unexplained health symptoms,” and confirming a completed cleanup is the fifth. Symptoms sit on that list because they are often the only sign of growth you cannot see, behind a wall or under a floor. The EPA's overview of indoor mold makes the same point about hidden moisture.
Two triggers in the same house, say a musty odour and a cough that started after a leak, is the point at which we take the sample rather than wait. Mold exposure is easier to settle with a lab count than with a calendar.
- Unexplained symptoms that ease away from home
- Visible growth or a musty odour
- A leak or flood, even a dried one
- Buying or selling a home
- After a remediation, to confirm the cleanup
What Readers Ask About Health and Mold
Readers who reach this page with symptoms ask three things about health and mold: whether a test can give a diagnosis, what the musty smell actually is, and whether testing makes the symptoms stop. Each has a short answer below.
Each answer draws the same line. The test measures the building and the mold exposure in it, and the diagnosis of what that exposure has done to you belongs to your doctor.
- Can a test diagnose an illness?
- What about VOCs and musty smells?
- Does testing make the symptoms stop?
If your question is not one of the three, ask it on the call. We would rather answer it before booking than after. The workplace side of the same question, mold in an occupied commercial building, is covered by OSHA's page on mold.
Can a test diagnose an illness?
No. A mold test measures the building, and the diagnosis of what mold exposure has done to you stays with a physician. Identifying the species “does not change how the mold is removed,” so a species name on the report serves medical and documentation purposes only.
The report is something you can hand a physician, not a substitute for one. It says what was in the air and where, and the physician says what that means for you.
What about VOCs and musty smells?
The musty smell is microbial volatile organic compounds, mVOCs, the gases active mold gives off. Exposure to VOCs and mVOCs indoors can bring headaches, nausea, blurred vision and respiratory irritation, and higher exposure is linked to liver and kidney damage.
The smell matters because it is a sign of active growth, so a musty room is a reason to look for mold you cannot see, and an mVOC reading is a different measurement from a spore count.
Does testing make the symptoms stop?
No. Testing does not change the air. Lab analysis is one step, and because water is the underlying problem, testing “does not resolve the moisture source or replace damaged materials.” What a test does is locate the growth and measure how far the mold exposure reaches, so the leak and the growth can be dealt with.
For an Allen TX home that measuring is done by reading mold spore counts room by room against an outdoor control, which is the work of air quality mold testing in an Allen home.
Book a Mold Test in Allen
One call sets the address, the rooms where the symptoms are worst, and the time. We test in Allen and the towns around it, Fairview, Parker, Lucas and Plano among them. Monday to Saturday, 7 am to 6 pm, and outside those hours leave a message and we call back the next working morning.