Moldy Shelf Makes Me Sick!

Well, something happened yesterday which was good in some ways, and bad in some ways. It was bad because it made me really sick. It was good because it was a very definitive result of a test that I was doing. I know for sure now that one of my theories is right.

I noticed mold growing on a wooden shelf underneath the kitchen sink, in the cabinet. There is a small drip from either the faucet, the drain, or both. When I use that sink at all, it leaks, and sets off the moldy smell.

However, in the past, it might have been a different kind of mold. I used to smell the odor, but it didn't make me feel sick. So I thought that the mold couldn't be what was making me sick this winter. (I should say, 'One of several things that made me sick.') It had never been anything but a bad smell in the past.

Well, I went several weeks without using that sink. And yes, the smell went away, and so did a lot of my bad fumes: I was in the house, and didn't get sick.

Yesterday, I used the sink again to run the portable dishwasher for several weeks' worth of piled-up dishes. It had to be done. Afterwards, I opened the cabinet to look in at the mold, and see whether the sink had been dripping while the dishwasher was running.

When I opened the cabinet, a burst of humid, moldy-smelling air came out, and immediately, that instant, I got sick, felt like I was going to throw up, and got dizzy, tingling, faint, and unable to think clearly. My legs and arms got weak and uncoordinated, and I stumbled when I walked. My throat and lungs became a little bit scratchy and burning (but not very badly, just mildly).

So I opened the windows again, put the fan on, put on a new air filter that a friend got at Goodwill, and then I got out of the house. I felt sick for a while, but it gradually got better when I went outside.

The drip needs to be fixed, and the shelf needs to be replaced. As a compromise on replacing the shelf, it could be covered with something that is not permeable to water, such as linoleum, or wallpaper, or even just garbage bags as a temporary fix. That would help keep it from getting extremely wet, but wouldn't help whenever the air is very humid, and the humidity activates the mold even without any dripping. So it needs to be fixed for real, but something could be done to make it less bad for a while.

It helps to know for sure one of the things that was making me sick this winter.