Matt Kelly answers whether air filters used before mold remediation can be reused. His answer is conditional but the default recommendation is no — sensitive people (mast cell activation, multiple chemical sensitivity, histamine issues) can react to retained mold/mycotoxins in devices that move air. He describes client anecdotes where stopping use improved symptoms, gives one example of thoroughly cleaning and discarding filters (blowing out the blower, spraying EC3 microfiber), and advises replacing filters for the cleaned space when possible.
Chapters
Hey, Matt, can I use my air filter that I used before remediation? After remediation, I get asked that quite a bit. You already have your air filters running, you know, because you have a mold problem. But when you get remediation done, can you still use those same filters? And the question is, maybe. Okay, I know you're looking for a yes or no. And like so many of my answers, they're always conditional. It's always a sliding scale. The easiest answer, if I had to pick one, I'd say no. Okay. Anything that moves air does become a problem for some people, for the very sensitive people. So this is your air filter. This is your vacuum. This is your dehumidifier. Anything that's sucking air within itself and. And then blowing air back out. I've got feedback from people that tells me it's not okay. I have clients that react. So after I saw that pattern, I started warning people saying, if you have mast cell, if you have multiple chemical sensitivity, if you have histamine issues, if you're super sensitive to your supplements, if your body's not okay with these molds and mycotoxin levels, then these items that are sucking air in and blowing air out do become a problem. I was just reading. I don't think it was a client of mine. I think I was just reading in the. In my mold group about someone that said they. They had their mediation done. They had their air filter, same air filter running, and they just kept feeling so awful. They thought they should have been getting better. They wondered about the air filter, and they took it out of the house, stopped using. Within a day or two, she started feeling better, and it just kept progressing after that. That air filter was creating the problem. I've had other clients where I said, are you still using the same air filters from the moldy area? They said, yes. I said, shut them off. Sure enough, the next day or two, they started feeling better. Is that the case for everyone? No, because everyone's not extremely sensitive. Sometimes people can clean them to best of their ability, and they're okay because they're not that sensitive. Is it a safer thing to get rid of them and get new ones? Yes, absolutely. Is that in everyone's budget? No. I get it. I had taken a. Brought a air filter from our previous house to this house. Before it came in this house, I took it outside, or it came outside, and then I took my air compressor and I opened everything up. I threw the filters out. I blew in the blower. Good. I just saturated it with compressed air to blow everything I could out and then I sprayed it down with EC3amicrofiber and cleaned everything up for us. It was okay, but I know that it wouldn't be okay for other people. So again, like a lot of my answers, it depends. It depends on what your molds are. It depends what their concentrations are, depends what the mycotoxin levels are. It depends how sensitive you are. It depends if you have mast cell or multiple chemical sensitivity. There's sliding scale for everything and I wish it was easier. I wish everything was a yes or no. It's not. But that's an example that worked for us and also examples where it doesn't work for other people. The default answer, if I had to pick one again, is no. Try to have new ones for the new space for your clean space and throw out the old ones. But I hope that helps.
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