The first step in determining whether a building is infested with mold is always a thorough visual inspection. But if you decide to have a professional mold inspection, the inspector might want to confirm that the mold you have found is one of the dangerous varieties. Remember, all mold is dangerous to allergic or sensitive individuals, but some varieties of mold can produce mycotoxins that are dangerous to everyone. Scientific evidence of dangerous mold can prove important in lawsuits involving mold because it establishes that the mold is present and is a variety that can cause dangerous physical reactions.
There are two basic categories of mold testing: taking samples from the air and testing samples from a surface.
Mold Air Samples
Mold air samples test how many mold spores are present in the air; spores are the means by which mold reproduces. It’s possible that some mold colonies might be present, but have not yet matured enough to begin reproducing. That is why surface testing is also important.
Mold can cause health problems when it is ingested, and can cause skin reactions when it is touched. The most serious mold health problems are caused by inhaling mold. This might be because mold exposure by inhaling mold spores is likely to occur over a long range of time, whereas a person might only consume or have skin contact with mold occasionally.
Mold air samples are the best way to determine how much mold spore is present in the air you breathe. The two main types of tests are:
- A bioaerosol test involves drawing a stream of air into an aluminum device for five minutes. The device contains a petri dish full of growth media, and it is held closed by clamps and O-rings to prevent contamination by air other than that being tested. The petri dish is examined by a laboratory over the course of a few days to see if mold has begun to grow. If mold does grow, it can be further tested to determine the exact species. The bioaerosol test is expensive and must be conducted with exacting scientific procedures, to ensure the results are accurate.
- A spore trap is a device that allows airborne particles to settle on an adhesive media. It will trap mold spores in the air, but does not allow them to grow, so they can’t be tested to determine the species. A spore trap will trap anything airborne, including insects, skin cells, and pollen — the components of household dust. Laboratory analysis is needed, but this test is faster and less expensive than air sampling.
Mold Surface Testing
Mold surface testing involves taking small samples from areas of mold.
- Surface samples can be scraped off visible mold and sent to a lab for analysis. The process is relatively inexpensive and can determine the exact species of mold involved, but doesn’t always indicate how much mold spore is present in the air. Collecting surface samples also poses a risk to the collector and those nearby, as it “stirs up” mold.
- Sterile swabbing involves dabbing an area of mold growth with a sterile cotton swab saturated in growth media, which is then immersed in more growth media and sent to a lab for analysis. This method of mold testing is inexpensive and less dangerous than scraping off a sample, but it doesn’t work on dry surfaces or detect mold hidden within porous surfaces.
No mold test is 100 percent accurate in determining the scope of a mold infestation problem. It is possible for hidden mold to be causing severe medical problems, even if mold tests show a minor infestation. The intensity of mold exposure is more closely linked to serious medical problems; for example, a person sleeping next to a wall hiding a serious growth of toxic mold behind the paneling might suffer from serious medical symptoms, but a mold spore trap would show only a few airborne spores throughout the house. The person most affected in that situation would be breathing the mold spores almost directly from their source.
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