How to Get an Accurate Diagnosis When Air Testing for Mold

Recently, during some email correspondence with a fellow mold sufferer, I was reminded of a problem that afflicts many people trying to find out answers about mold in their indoor environments: The prevalence of false “negatives” or “safe” spore count results in certain air testing methods for mold. It is a problem that I am intimately acquainted with, because my family also got an “all clear” verdict on our extremely toxic home from the first mold inspector that we hired.

In this person’s case, the mold inspection and mold testing were also performed by a professional. The inspection only consisted of the collection of spore-trap air samples that were sent off to a lab for analysis. No “problematic” molds or spore count levels were identified in any of the samples collected. Spore trap air sampling was also the testing method used in our home that didn’t indicate our very big mold problem. It is a testing method that typically compares indoor air samples to outdoor air samples. Types of molds and number of spores are analyzed by microscopy to determine whether or not a mold problem exists with the indoor air. (I think determinations made on indoor environments that are solely based on outdoor mold comparisons is faulty logic. You can read my post HERE about why.) The home was then “cleared” or declared “safe” and she and her husband put mold out of their minds and continued living there.