Sunday, December 19, 2010

Could this be mold again?

I guess it was the year before last, when I was at the other apartment and the black mold fumes were extremely severe, and it happened during the worst part of winter when it was bitterest cold. To avoid the mold in the apartment, I was sleeping in my car in the most bitter cold, with sleeping bags and multiple layers of clothing and two or three socks on my feet, with the window open a tiny crack so I could breathe.

I read somewhere that black mold can be triggered by freezing temperatures to produce even more toxic fumes than usual.

The poisonous air was also OUTSIDE the apartment, though, this morning. I went for a drive to avoid the bad air. Afterwards I was parked in my car, sitting outside for a few minutes listening to the radio when I got home, and the air got bad again just sitting in the parking lot! It's hard to imagine that mold fumes would be outside.

I know that there IS a little bit of mold here, and it comes through the holes in the wall where the pipes under the sink go into the wall. If you run the fan in the bathroom, without opening a window a crack, then the fan pulls up the moldy air from under the sinks. I learned about that at the other apartment. Fans can actually make the mold worse.

But again, it's hard to imagine that the moldy air is all around outside the building, too. I smell smoke in the area, as though it's blowing right over to us from some other house, so I can't tell for sure what's causing the dizziness and weakness and blacking out.

But this is just like that bad winter at the other place, except back then, it was definitely mold and not smoke. I remember, I didn't smell any smoke, just horrible fumes coming from someplace inside the house, and for a while, I thought it was carbon monoxide. I remember opening up the cupboard under the kitchen sink, and seeing all the mold where the sink was leaking onto the wood, and smelling that smell that used to always fill up the apartment, and when the smell came out I nearly fell over and nearly passed out. That's when I figured out for sure that it was mold. And it was always worst at the bitterest cold time of year, like right now, 10 degrees outside, the worst possible time to be forced to leave the house and go camping outdoors.

No comments: