About six months after living in the Irish Channel apartment, Allen Clayton began having coughing fits.
He had no history of asthma and had never been near common triggers like smoke. He was 33 years old and a healthy man who exercised regularly as a pedicab driver. But suddenly, he began coughing until he passed out.
He visited the emergency room several times, where he received breathing treatment and was sent home.
“I thought I was going to die,” Clayton said.
It wasn't until an ear, nose and throat specialist put a scope up his nose that the problem became apparent.
“He immediately said, 'You have a lot of mold in your house,'” Clayton recalled. “He said, 'You need to get out today.'”
With a rainy, frequent flooding and humid climate, Louisiana buildings are ideal conditions for mold growth, which has health implications for many residents who become sensitive to mold over time.
“We see it all the time,” said Dr. John Carlson, an allergy and immunology specialist at Ochsner Health.
The most problematic mold in New Orleans is Alternaria, shown here.
Image courtesy of Dr. John Carlson
About half of the patients Carlson sees for allergies test positive for mold allergies, which typically cause symptoms like coughing, watery eyes and wheezing, but mold allergies can also trigger asthma, leading to debilitating symptoms and a reduced quality of life.
Every environment has its own threshold for mold, but the process of developing a mold allergy seems to be linked to intense exposure, like that of Clayton, who later peered into the crumbling walls of his apartment and saw mold growing there so thick it looked like moss.
These types of exposures, associated with flooding or temporary water damage, often trigger new mold allergies.
“We strongly suspect that these very strong exposures throw the allergic immune system off guard, making it more responsive to even small amounts,” Carlson said.
Why mold provokes such a strong reaction
After exposure to strong mold, your body becomes highly sensitive to even small amounts of mold in the environment, which your immune system perceives as a threat.
“This is an immune system that's been put into a very bad state,” Carlson said.
After the floods, Louisiana's immune system begins to kick in.
“Any time there's a big storm and a lot of people are exposed to mold, we'll see a spike in adult asthma cases coming into our clinic,” Carlson said.
Patients who later test positive for mold allergies may panic and try to remove the mold by scrubbing surfaces in their home with chemicals. While moldy conditions should be addressed immediately after a flood, it is impossible to remove all mold from the environment. Allergists see injury from bleach when patients try to disinfect their homes.
Instead, experts recommend a treatment that exposes the body to small amounts of mold year-round through allergy shots. The shots are specially formulated to match the exact mold spores to which a patient tests positive.
“At the end of the day, controlling the immune system is more important than controlling the environment,” Carlson said.
What to do if you find mold
If water gets inside your home, it's important to act quickly, said Daniel J. Harrington, an assistant professor at Louisiana State University's School of Public Health and a certified industrial hygienist.
“It takes about 24 to 48 hours to get everything completely dry before mold growth really starts,” Harrington says.
When mold appears, many people want to get tested to find out what type it is, but Harrington generally doesn't recommend it because tests are expensive and don't provide much actionable data.
Instead, he says, visible mold should be viewed as a “moisture control issue.” Cleaning with products like bleach can help, but mold will return unless the moisture is addressed.
As long as there is moisture, mold will turn most surfaces, including wood, drywall, and carpet, into food.
Typical household molds include Penicillium, Cladosporium, Alternaria and Aspergillus. The most common mold seen in New Orleans patients is Alternaria, Carlson said. Stachybotrys, the so-called “black mold,” is unlikely to be found in homes.
To clean up mold that's been growing for a while, Harrington recommends using wipes rather than a vacuum, which can spread spores around, where they can take root elsewhere and enter your respiratory system.
To prevent future mold growth, run the bathroom's air conditioner and use an exhaust fan. Moldy carpeting and drywall may need to be removed and replaced. Water leaks should be repaired.
Clayton said his doctor told the building's property management company to vacate immediately. The company never responded, but Clayton moved out immediately. His doctor told him it could take three to five years for his immune system to recover. Now, four years later, his asthma attacks are much less frequent, but his exposure to mold still made him sick for a while.
“I'm sure there are thousands of people in New Orleans who are just like me and have no idea that they may be exposed to really harmful mold,” Clayton said.
