What is the difference between indoor and outdoor mold? Mold is everywhere outside and does not seem to make me sick, but I worked in a water-damaged building and became almost bedridden. Can you please help me to understand why indoor mold is so problematic to our health, but outdoor mold only seems to cause “seasonal allergies”?
That was the reader question I received last week. It is such a valid, complex and wonderful question that I wanted to answer it here on the blog, so that everyone can (hopefully) learn a little about mold from my answer.
Now, I am not a Certified Industrial Hygienist, an Environmental Health Scientist or a Building Biologist, so my answer to this reader is not “reference book material” or may not be completely scientifically accurate, so please be aware of that fact on the front end. My answer and knowledge of mold comes from my experience and my 20 books of handwritten notes from our mold ordeal with answers to this and many other questions in layman’s terms as I lived our nightmare and consulted some of best licensed professionals on mold, mold remediation, and health care professionals in the business at that time.
That being said, here is my reply: