Clothes Mould:
Removing Mould from Clothing
[Oct.
9, 2003]
Q. We have
left our home because of mould. We have Aspergillus/Penicillium (in
the basement at 278,878 Air-o-cell) and HVACs between 10,773 and
4,000 as well as other air-o cells in other rooms at 13,000. We
have stachybotrys mould in a tape sample also in the basement
(3,417) as well as HVAC (1500-2300). We had just moved into this
home, which is a very old home. My question is our possessions. We
have 6 children ages 3 weeks to 12. We sorted and had most
of the kids clothes on the old carpet (probably 15-20 years old).
We are getting conflicting reports as to how to clean our clothes,
shoes, jackets etc. We've been told to just wash them normally in
the house (or have them dry cleaned) and then take them out or
that everything needs to be decontaminated professionally. Which
is it? While the high # of the Asperillus/Penicillius is a
concern, it's really the Stachybotrys I an worried about.
A.
Sorry for the great mould problems your family is facing. You
were very wise to move out in view of the serious mould health
threat to your family members. Stachybotrys, Aspergillus, and
Penicillium are the three most dangerous moulds, in the order
written [Stachy being the worst]. Your infant child and other
young children can quickly be permanently harmed medically by
living in mould infestation. You are also wise in not moving any
personal possessions without first doing mould decontamination of
such items to prevent mould cross-contamination of where you move
to. Washable clothes should be washed at least twice with Borax
laundry detergent being the washer soap used. Borax is a natural
mould cleaner. Dry cleaning clothes is usually but not always
effective in killing and remove mould spores from the items dry
cleaned. We have an in depth section about mould cleaning each and
every different type of personal property in our new book
Do-It-BEST-Yourself Mould Prevention, Inspection, Testing, and
Remediation.
[June 3, 2003]
Q. My home recently had a leak
under my house, and caused damaged to my back bedroom closets, and
mould grew over my shoes, on some of purses, spores was found on my my
clothes, and I removed those from the closet. I still had clothes in
my closet that had no obvious spores What should happen to those
clothes? Should the all be replaced or cleaned? The closet is being
mould remediated.
A.
Dry cleaning clothes is good for killing mould and removing
mould spores, and cleaning moldy clothing. Washing clothes twice
with Borax laundry detergent also kills and removes mould
spores. Borax is a natural mould killer and mould cleaner. Borax
is one of the ingredients of the very important anti-mould
protective coating. After the closet area has been remediated and cleaned of mould infestation, be sure that two wet
coatings of effective and EPA-registered mold fungicide are sprayed onto the cleaned area, followed by two
wet coatings of Tim-bor Antimicrobial Coating. Let each spraying dry naturally
before the next spray application. Read about all of the required
procedures for effective mould remediation at:
Mould Removal.
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