26: Q&A: Are all molds toxic? Where can mold grow? And more...

Hello again, everyone, and welcome to today's show. If you're one of the 130 million people that are dealing with Sirs Lyme disease, autoimmune disease, or other conditions that are impacted by mold on a daily basis, and you need to learn how to eliminate that exposure, then you're in the right place. My name is Brian Carr, and you're listening to Mold Finders Radio.

Hey, everyone. Today is a Q and A show, which is cool. So those of you who've been listening for a while know that maybe once or twice a week, I submit or ask people to submit me questions, and then I answer them on this show. So that's what we're gonna do today. We're gonna jump right in. So the first question that I have is from Zkadams on Instagram, and the question is, do all molds make mycotoxins? So the quick answer is no. So not all molds are capable of producing mycotoxins. What determines the ability for a mold to produce a mycotoxin or not is actually looking at the species of the molds. So when you do, like, a basic error test or a basic surface test, you're not seeing the species of the molds that are present. What you're seeing is called the genera, which is like a fancy way of saying the category of the mold. So, for example, if you did, like, an air sample, like in a wall, or you did a surface test on a cabinet or something, where you saw what looked like mole was growing, that result is going to show you the category of the mole that's there. So one of those on those tests is called Aspergillus penicillium.

There's actually two different mole categories that are attached together in these reports. And it's because the way that these samples are analyzed, it makes it difficult for the lab techs to actually differentiate if it is Aspergillus or if it is penicillium, because they look so similar under a microscope. So air samples and swab samples that are microscopy is what they're called. Sample types are basically sent to the lab. A lab tech puts it under a microscope, and they look through a microscope, and they can essentially just see the spores of the mold that are there. But because you're limited from a human looking through a microscope, you're not able to break it down to the species level. So that's the limitation on doing more air and surface testing. And that's why we use that type of testing, just to figure out if there are Sources of molds that are hidden in different places. We don't use that type of testing to figure out if those molds are potential mycotoxin producers or not. Because if there's a source in a wall or a cabinet or hidden somewhere in your house, it needs to be remediated because it's a mold source. We then do different type of testing throughout the house to figure out if mycotoxins have been produced. So a mycotoxin is a chemical byproduct of certain mold species. So the only way to know the mold species is to do a DNA formatting type sampling method. And that's really where the ERMI sampling method is very beneficial. So a lot of us that are kind of in this world, and those of you guys who are listening to the show, you've probably heard of an ERMI test at some point in time. But basically it's a dust sample that's collected from throughout the house. And the analysis type is way more in depth than somebody looking under a microscope. Right. It's actually run through more of a kind of a computer analyzation process.

And don't ask me the complete specifics, because I don't know exactly like what they're doing in the lab. But the process is called msqpcr, which is mold specific quantitative polymers chain reaction, which is a fancy way of saying that it's DNA formatting of whatever molds are there, which means the DNA is going to tell us the species of the mold. The species of the mold tells us if that mold has the ability to produce a mycotoxin. So that's how we figure out if there is a mold type in the house that has the ability to produce mycotoxins. So when you do this ERMI test throughout the house, you know, not so much looking at the score of the ermi, because that's not telling you that particular piece of information, but if you look at the individual mold species, you can see which ones are there. And then we know out of those, which ones can produce mycotoxins, potentially.

Side note, in Mold Masterclass, which is my training course that I put together, there's an entire module on interpreting lab results, and there's a whole section broken out for the ERMI test and looking at these individual molds in the ERMI test and which ones have the ability to produce mycotoxins. So that's all in that part of the training program, if you're interested in seeing all that stuff. Okay, so back to mycotoxins so here's how it works. So now that we know that not all molds produce mycotoxins, how do they get produced? How do they move around all that stuff? Because I feel like that's the next question. So even though you didn't ask that question, I'm going to go ahead and give you some more.

So mycotoxins are a defense mechanism. What that means is if no other mold or bacteria or even, you know, any sort of other kind of colonizer or invader comes into a mold's territory, then it feels no need to protect itself. And if it feels no need to protect itself, then it won't produce this chemical, this toxic chemical that it uses for that purpose. The way the chemical is created, it basically covers the mold colony like lava over a volcano. So if you could imagine that happening over a volcano, that's what happens when the mycotoxin is created. And then it kind of creates like a toxic moat around the mold colony. And then anything that's coming into its territory kind of runs into that moat and then it kills it. Right. So it's a chemical that's meant to kill living things is what a mycotoxin is. So because it's a defense mechanism, it's not produced all the time. So we have a running internal study on this. We've got, I mean, hundreds of mycotoxin tests that are in this study now that we've done ourselves. And we're seeing that mycotoxins are detected 55% of the time when we do them in the house, in a living space. So, you know, that's kind of what you're seeing. So a lot of people ask that question, like, is a mold a toxic mold? Because they think that if it's not a, quote, toxic mold, then it's not dangerous. Right. And so I just want to be clear that that's not necessarily what it means. Okay. If someone is a mold sensitive person. So there's a few reasons that could happen. One, you have the HLA Dr. Genetic predisposition that makes you more susceptible to mold issues in your body. About 25% of the population has this. So if you have that issue, you don't need mycotoxins to trigger problems in your body. Just the mold itself can trigger the problems. Right? So it doesn't matter if it's a toxic mold or a non toxic mold or whatever. If that mold is there and it's working its way into your system, your system doesn't know what to do with it. And it's a problem. Okay, so that's one scenario. Another scenario is if you're immunocompromised already. And so what does that mean? It means if your body is basically dealing with some other health condition that makes you more susceptible to mold exposure. So think Lyme disease, autoimmune diseases.

You know the big example that's used like on CDC websites and all this stuff is if you're a cancer patient undergoing chemo. Well, it's not that extreme. You don't have to be undergoing chemo to be immunocompromised. Right, but that is a extreme example of what happens basically if your immune system is not able to function to its full ability and it's not able to process stuff properly, because maybe it's dealing with another health condition that you have, or maybe, you know, something is suppressing it. Regardless, then your ability to deal with mold and detox it is not going to work as well. Right? And so in those cases, it's not just mycotoxins that are going to potentially cause a problem. Right? It could just be any type of mold that you're dealing with if your body can't funnel it out and, and detox it properly. So what I would say is you need to know what's happening with your body. So you absolutely have to be working with.

A doctor who understands mold. Right? A mold literate doctor who gets it and they can run different tests on you and figure that stuff out. But.

Yeah, I went a little more than answering your question specifically. But in summary, are all molds producing mycotoxins? And the answer is no.

Alright, so the next question we have is from Mrs. Annablack on Instagram, and her question is, can mold grow on any surface? I like this question.

The book, the quote book, if you will, the imaginary rules on mold, if you will say that there are certain surfaces that mold cannot grow on. And technically that's true. Right? So mold needs an organic food source to grow. So if you think of that things like metal or tile or sometimes even concrete, people think like, they think things like that windows, because windows are glass and sometimes metal, they think that mold can't grow on all that stuff. And so then if they're seeing darkness or weird things going on, they just immediately write it off that there can't be mold that grows there. Well, here's the thing is like, that's all technically true if you're like in a very controlled environment, like a laboratory environment, right? If you're just looking at the, the pure science of mold and what it grows on, then, yeah, that's true, but that's not real world conditions, right? So think about it like your house has dust in the house. It just happens. It doesn't matter how clean your house is, there's going to be dust in your house. Well, guess what? Dust is an organic food source. So now let's say dust settles on your windowsill, and then the window creates condensation, and so some moisture forms. Well, technically, mold can't grow on glass, right? So there shouldn't be a problem there, however, because there is some dust that's sitting there. Dust is a food source. So now mold can grow on the dust, right? So mold can grow around windows, mold can grow on concrete, mold can grow on tile. It can grow in all these places because essentially there's other. There's other things that happen in our environment that settle on top of those surfaces that allow mold to grow. And so it's really important for us not to just specifically look at, like, the pure hundred percent science on can mold grow on metal? The answer is no. Mold can't grow on metal alone. But if you cover metal with dust and then the metal creates condensation and water happens, then, yeah, mold can grow on that, right? And it looks like the mold is growing on the metal at that point because you can't really see like a little layer of dust. You know what I mean?

So it can. Now, the thing is, can that stuff be cleaned? And so those types of things can be more easily cleaned because you're able to basically wipe off and hepa vacuum and clean off the surface where the mold was growing, and then you're back to the original surface because it's not growing into the metal, right? So, like, there are ways that you can clean more solid items that technically mold cannot grow on. But if you're like going through your house and you're seeing things in different places where it looks like there could potentially be mold growing on something. Like, I've posted pictures of windows on Instagram on my feed on Mold Masterclass that shows that there was condensation around a window and then there's mold growing around the window. And so many times in my house, and people are like, oh, well, that's just dirt. Mold can't grow on windows. Or a contractor will tell me that when I'm in their house, or a remediator will tell me that. I'm like, listen, I tested it. There's mold on it. So first off, we're not talking in theory anymore. We're actually showing you like there's mold on it and there's a reason. Explain why there's a reason. Right. And then you have to think beyond that. You say, okay, so let's say, let's just go with this window example. So let's say the window is glass and metal. Let's say that those are the two components of the window. Well, glass and metal can create condensation from temperature changes. That creates moisture. Okay. And so you could have mold growing on the surface of the window. So let's go a step further. If moisture was created from the window enclosure area, then how do you know that the moisture is only on the part of the window that you can see? Was moisture maybe created below, like in the windowsill or in the side enclosure of the window because the metal created moisture or the glass created moisture. So it's possible there could be mold hidden in the wood framing that surrounds your window as well. Right, because the moisture that was created, and at that point now it's not worrying about mold growing on a metal surface, but it's the water and the moisture created from the metal surface that penetrated into some wood that's surrounding it. And now mold can grow on that too. Right. So it's important to kind of look at this more kind of real world scenarios, like real test scenarios versus 100% laboratory, like controlled environment scenario. Because yes, there are materials that mold technically cannot grow on if you're in a 100% controlled environment. But when you start adding in other things in real life, a big piece of that being dirt and dust, you can start having mold that grows on that stuff as well.

Alright, so let's look at the next question. This one's from Rachel S. Phillips on Instagram and it says, what's the best way to prevent mold growth on grout in the shower? Do grout sealants help? Alright, so this is a cool question too. So we just talked about different types of surfaces that mold doesn't grow on. So it kind of flows into this. Typically, you're not seeing mold growth on the tile in the shower unless there's a buildup of maybe soap product or something else is building up on the tile surface. And then maybe mold can grow on that. However, the grout, mold can grow in the grout. And so typically what happens is that over time. So when they first build your shower, like your showers, the grout's all perfect, perfectly sealed. Right. There's no water getting in there. But the thing is, is that water's Hitting the ground of your shower every day, right? And so over time, water's going to degrade the grout. This is one of those things that you can't just grout your shower once and then think that it's going to last fore. This is one of the things that you have to stay on top of and continue doing maintenance and working on. Because what happens is that over time, water, like I said, it'll degrade the grout a little bit, and it creates these little pinholes where then the moisture could get into the pinholes, and then it starts growing mold, like in the grout and under the grout. And sometimes it gets behind the tile, Sometimes moisture gets behind the tile through those pinholes, and then all of a sudden, you have trapped moisture behind your tile of your shower, and then you can end up with mold behind the shower walls, right? So it could turn into a bigger problem.

Here's one trick in terms of, like, how to protect that from happening. It's all about water, right? It's all about this water issue. So if we can limit the time that water is basically eating into the grout, it's gonna help extend the life of the grout more. So one super easy way to do that is to get, like, one of those, like, squeegee.

Handle things that you can use for your shower. I don't know what the real name of them are called. It's like a squeegee thing. So you hold it and you run it down the walls of your shower. You squeegee your shower walls after you're done showering. You know, when you're done showering, there's like, water all over the place, right? And if you leave it in there, how many hours does it take for that water to evaporate? It takes a long time, right? And so that means that that water is sitting on those surfaces for an extended period of time, and they can really speed up the degradation process of everything that's going on. But if you squeegee all the water off the walls, and then you get it down into the tub basin or the bottom of the, you know, the shower. If you have a shower all the way down and areas as dry as you can from the squeegee, then you're going to really extend the life of the grout because it's not going to be getting eaten up as much for nearly as long of a period of time. And then if you really want to get on top of it, you could actually dry the walls with a towel when you're done. Right. You could even do that, and that would help even more. So it's one thing that you can do. Grout sealants, right? So you want to make sure that your grout is continuing to be sealed and that it's not creating these little pinholes that are happening in there. So I would definitely recommend that you talk with an actual, like, tile expert or a contractor or somebody who can really give you specifics on the best way to do that. It's not my area of expertise on, like, what product to use and the best way to implement it, but what I would tell you is that you want to make sure that you're not getting these little holes that are created in your grout, and that may require, you know, doing kind of extra sealant over the top of that to help protect that. So it's definitely something that you can consider. But by removing the moisture that's left over in your shower when you're done, you can really help extend the life of that grout.

All right, this could be the last one for today. This one is from bland2665. And the question is, how do we hire you?

So one. Thank you. It's very complimentary, so I appreciate that. But I get asked this a lot, actually, through, like, DMs and different things people are asking how to do that. So.

First, my company that actually travels the country is called Weinspect. So you could go to yesweinspect.com and you can talk to us and see if it makes sense for us to come out there to do that. So that's one way that you can work with us. I will tell you right now up front that we are more expensive than anyone you're going to find locally. So you just have to understand that if you're wanting to work with us, which I would love for that to happen, but have to be a good fit for you. Right? And so it's because there's travel and there's other expenses that go along. So I just want to give you that heads up that that's part of it. However, when you do work with us, you get either myself or my. My partner, Corey, who both of us are. I mean, if you've enjoyed listening to anything that I have to say, Corey's actually been in the field even longer than I have. So you would get either one of us that are basically managing the entire and overseeing the entire inspection from our home office base, and then we actually fly a consultant that we've trained ourselves to come to your home, wherever you are, and then you get a team inspection between the two of us. So he's on site and he's also live streaming video back to us and we're directing him through the house. So you're getting both sets of eyes on your house to really see what's going on. Process usually takes anywhere from like four to six to even eight hours, depending on the size of the house and what's going on. So it's a very in depth, thorough inspection process. Like everything that I've talked about about how we go through a house, we do the exact same thing through this method, except you actually get two sets of trained eyes on everything instead of one. So it's pretty cool that it happens that way. So, you know, that's how you work with us directly. Another option, if that doesn't work for you, I did create the training course. It's called Mold Masterclass. It's. It's everything you need to know about mold and mycotoxins, how they travel through the house, all the different sampling methods, the strengths, the weaknesses on all of that stuff, how to interpret all of the lab results, what they mean for someone who's mold sensitive. Because the way you interpret lab results for someone who is mold sensitive is different than for someone who maybe isn't. And there's even a section there that gives you like a questionnaire on how you can interview local inspection companies to try to find someone that can execute the type of inspection that you need. And we even include our remediation protocols in that report too, or in that program too. So literally everything that I do on site, with the exception of the inspection, is included in Mold Masterclass, which, if you ask me, is a really amazing value. So that's an option too. You could go to moldmasterclass.com you could check that out and basically you could listen to me talk for two and a half hours on everything there is to know about mold and mycotoxins and really kind of give you a baseline education so you could bring in the right people to execute the plans properly. So that's another way. And then one thing that I'll tease right now, I haven't really put it out there. We are working on a new offering that we're gonna make available hopefully in the next, like month and a half to two months. That's really going to change the way that you can work with us and how you get access to how we go through a house. And so that's gonna be available in, like I said, month and a half, two months or so. That's gonna be another option for you guys too. So we're trying to create different ways that we can help you that don't necessarily require us having to fly there and do it for you. Right. I mean, that's the best. If you could get us there and get us in the house, that's obviously like the best case scenario. But it's more expensive and that might not make sense for everyone. So we're working on creating other options. So mold Masterclass right now is a much more affordable option to get all of the knowledge and then we're going to roll out a middle kind of option where we kind of show you how to do a lot of it. So that's the next thing. I'm not going to tease it too much more than that, but I'm really, really excited to bring it out for you guys. So, yeah, that's how you work with us for right now. And then the last thing that you can do, obviously, without hiring me to come out direct, is you guys could keep asking questions. Right? So I post these stories once or twice a week and say, hey, give me questions for the show. And as you could tell, I answer them and I look at them. So go ahead and keep submitting questions if you have more questions. And I got no problem answering those as well. Alright, great. Thanks for the question.

So that's it for today's show, everyone. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment and subscribe and give a rating wherever you get your podcasts. It'll help spread the word to those who really need it the most.

It.