Article: The Truth About the Health Effects of Toxic Mold

The following information has been sent to hundreds of elected officials throughout the country.

I am writing to you on behalf of millions of Americans who have been harmed by exposure to toxic mold. The following message has been sent to hundreds of elected officials including President Obama, all U.S. Senators, members of the U.S. House, the Governors of all 50 states, state legislators, state health departments, etc.

Toxic mold causes serious health problems. We need your help to get laws passed in order to ensure that the American people can get appropriate medical care and the correct information regarding the handling and remediation of toxic mold. We need laws and regulations in regard to people who test and remediate mold in order to stop the fraud and deceit that has been occurring throughout the country.

For 50 years, the tobacco industry denied the truth about the health effects of tobacco. How long will the insurance industry and other stakeholders be allowed to deny the truth about the health effects of toxic mold? We need to expose the truth now and educate the public about the proper way to handle mold problems in our homes, schools and businesses. If your family was exposed to toxic mold, wouldn't you want laws in place to protect your loved ones? This is all we are asking. We need your leadership and action on this very important issue.

The following information will give you a good place to start in understanding the issues that need to be addressed. These ten items are a very small sample of the thousands of documents available on this topic. I thought these items would be most helpful in your efforts to create new laws and regulations about mold-related issues. You might also review the mold legislation that was proposed by Representative John Conyers.

1. The following paper has an insightful discussion of whether mold contamination in homes can be regulated. "Can Mold Contamination of Homes be Regulated Lessons Learned from Radon and Lead Policies"? The answer is YES.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es0620585

2. The State of California issued mold remediation guidelines. This is one of the most up-to-date reports available. It contains references to several important articles about the health effects of toxic mold. The U.S. Navy also has mold remediation guidelines.

http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/06/01/06-001.pdf

http://www-nehc.med.navy.mil/downloads/prevmed/katrina/ihfom_ch13-3.pdf

3. Several states have passed legislation designating September 2009 as toxic mold awareness month, and other states have passed legislation regarding standards and qualifications for mold investigators. The following links provide two examples:

Nevada legislation about toxic mold awareness month

http://www.leg.state.nv.us/75th2009/Bills/ACR/ACR7_EN.pdf

Florida legislation about mold remediation

http://www.flsenate.gov/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=Ch0468/PART16.HTM

4. The U.S. Surgeon General recently announced the federal government's new Healthy Home Initiative which discusses mold and mold toxins, along with lead paint and radon, and other issues that can affect the indoor environment in homes.

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/healthyhomes/calltoactiontopromotehealthyhomes.pdf

5. The Center for School Mold Help has a lot of valuable information about mold in schools. Another group, Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings, is focused on water damage and mold problems caused by construction defects.

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