Toxic Mold – the Home Wrecker

August 12th, 2009. By LucyC

If you had a friend who suddenly began complaining of migraine headaches and dizziness, you might say go see the doctor, maybe it’s stress-related. What if your friend’s daughter suddenly started experiencing nosebleeds, and developed asthma?  Would you think that the symptoms both mother and daughter were experiencing were connected? It’s unlikely, right? Well, this is exactly what the Meng family experienced. The cause of all their medical problems, some of which will not go away, is toxic mold. 

It took some detective work to discover the cause—a process of elimination which included testing for cancer—before the doctors were able to determine that the family had been poisoned by mold. 

The mold had developed behind the walls their brand new, million dollar dream home. 

Normally, one would equate mold with leaking roofs or basement walls, and other areas in the home that may be inadvertently exposed to the elements and do not have adequate ventilation. But a brand new home? What happened? 

Short version, the wood used to build the structure of the new house was not allowed to dry adequately (it got rained on) before the building was completed, which provided the perfect environment for the poisonous mold to develop. 

Toxic mold is a greenish-black mold that grows on material with high cellulose content, such as straw, fiberboard, dry wall, paper, lint, even dust, and it requires constant moisture to grow. FYI, it does not grow on plastics and vinyl.

The Meng family had no warning that poisonous mold had developed behind their walls—there were no signs other than the symptoms of illness they developed. They sued the builder and won $4.75 million in damages which will rebuild the home they lost and replace all their possessions which had to be destroyed.

Among the people most at risk for toxic mold exposure are those who live in flood zones. If you live an area where flooding has occurred and your house has had to undergo renovations or construction of some kind, or be completely rebuilt, the Centers for Disease Control provide good information on toxic mold and how to avoid it or deal with it before it becomes causes you serious, even life-threatening health problems.   

If you have already suffered exposure to toxic mold and want to find what your legal options are, we can help.

Tags: Toxic Mold

This was posted on Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 4:46 pm and is filed under Personal Injury . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.