Toxic Mold Solutions

My Story

The rental house after we evacuated in 2002. Click image for slideshow of the hidden mold.

The following is Richard Arsenault's story, and illustrates the frustration many mold-exposed families go through. Of the many enviornmental exposures causing havoc, mold is certainly the most discussed; this is because there is such extensive physical as well as medical damage potential in a mold case. Mold damages and invades property while it damages and invades humans (and pets).

"My family rented a small house from a leading landlord in Burbank that looked perfect on the surface. The only indication of any potential problem was repaired concealed cracking on the interior wall surfaces and the remains of nails and boards from the prior tenant. Apparently, they had gone insane and boarded up all the windows. The landlord didn't bother to tell me about the long history of building defects, water intrusion, and mold. Likely, the mold is what drove tenant after tenant into illness prior to my occupancy.

Ceiling revealed cracks that slowly grew. Behind these cracks was severe hidden mold damage.
The house was quaint, cute, nicely painted, and below market rental rates.

The house was at the bottom of a street of properties all owned by the same real estate developer. Moments after entering, I discovered layer upon layer of shoddy repairs -- from electrical to plumbing. Several months into the lease, it was revealed that the management group was waiting to sell and demolish the entire block of homes. Their motivation was clearly to rent the units until the market would allow a sale of the entire block. That meant they hired handymen who would regularly violate city code and patch up the homes long enough to quell occupant complaints. To keep us placated, their rental rates were about 20%-40% less than market value for the high priced region in Burbank. At the time, I knew nothing of mold -- it was 1999.

Taking a shower resulted in gallons of water leaking into the walls and floor every day without our knowledge. Repairs showed the landlord was fully aware of these defects. The bathroom was about to collapse.

Soon, myself and my children developed myriad health problems. I was in perfect health upon entering, as confirmed by an executive-level health examination. Within months, I had uncontrollable allergies, memory loss, cognitive problems, GI problems, spleen, liver and kidney distress, skin rashes, hair loss, and more. My children suffered bizarre and sudden problems as well.

My fiancee then developed fungal sinusitis, lung problems, and a host of other sudden health symptoms shortly after she joined us in the house.

One would ask if there was any evidence that the house was causing our illness. The answer is not unless I was professionally trained as I am today. Nothing was evident on the surface until the heavy rains came a year and a half later into our exposure. One would also ask if anyone else was aware of our mysterious health problems. The answer was everyone -- from doctors to school. But given the wide spread ignorance on environmental exposures, nobody was able or willing to grant any association with the house. I was on my own, and I was dying.

Fall 2000. We had a sewage leak and the landlord allowed it to dry on its own. Then to respond to endless code violations, the landlord sent unlicensed workers to patch things up but never solve them. Later, the city of Burbank would reprimand and cite him for these violations -- but never enforce them for political reasons.

The direct connection between the house and the health problems finally came when my hand passed completely through a moldy wall in the living room after days of rain. It was February 19, 2001.

The wall crumbled in my hand, revealing decades of pre-existing mold.
Do not do this.

Mold showered to the floor as the wall crumbled in my hand. I called the landlord and was shocked to see his handyman patching over the mold and painting over the evidence.

A handyman patched over the mold and concealed it with paint -- as had clearly been done countless times previously. This is considered fraud and very dangerous.

I conducted an internet search on mold and discovered our symptoms matched that of heavy mold exposure. The pattern of concealment also made it obvious that the extent of the problem had been hidden deliberately from my family and former occupants. Awaiting a scientific evaluation of the circumstances, we evacuated with the clothes on our back.

Shortly after evacuation, we all spontaneously developed severe rashes and other blatant symptoms of detoxification. Laboratory tests confirmed high levels of fungi in the air, and the walls were literally crumbling with concealed mold. Building inspections revealed years of illegal patching and repairs and a completely uninhabitable house. The city cited the owner on at least 7 code violations. Medical tests confirmed dangerous exposure levels.

Then, things got political.

Apparently, the landlord was well positioned in politics. His sister-in-law was mayor. He owned a portion of the high school. Any plea for help was suddenly met as attack by Burbank. The Burbank school district insisted that we return to live in the contaminated house or my children would be expelled. I asked if we had a house fire would they be so bold. They responded by sending investigators with flashlights at 5 AM to find where my children were staying to justify expelling from the district.

They all seemed to want us to go away.

We attempted to clean and evaluate our belongings, and my insurance company declared them biohazardous due to mold and mycotoxin contamination. They declared the pickup truck unfit for humans due to mold contamination and had it crushed. The truck had become moldy while carrying contaminated items from the house to storage.

Interior of our truck, which insurance had destroyed for public safety due to mold contamination.

Forced into homelessness, we were so sensitized to mold that any hotel we attempted to stay in would trigger uncontrollable allergic responses. Worse, we seemed to contaminate anywhere we went with our few remaining possessions.

Producing a teen television series by day while homeless due to mold.

New clothing had to be replaced within weeks as our bodies detoxified. We were forced to remain in homelessness as we finished a series of programs which were syndicated to FOX and CBS.

Once we were able, we rented a brand new apartment and replaced everything slowly. Nothing could enter the space that had been in the contaminated house. We began to recover by avoiding re-exposure combined with a strict regimen of vitamins, detoxify, exercise, and diet.

We detoxified in a clean new space.

Almost $100,000 in medical expenses and well over $250,000 in property and business loss later, we received no compensation, sympathy or assistance from any source. Eventually, seven months after the claim was made, my insurance paid penny's on the dollar for some of our lost items.

The landlord discarded the beautiful new $2000 couch, the new beds, the children's furniture, the rugs and anything we knew couldn't be saved and promptly rented the house to a new family even cheaper!

As predicted, months later the entire block went up for sale and was financed by a major local bank.

Someone had deliberately gone to great efforts to remove the roof to our rental house, (but none of the others)...to assure that additional examinations would be discouraged.

We followed the best safety protocols available in 2001.

We found no solutions for remediating our possessions. The level of mycotoxin contamination was so high that items would cross contaminate across numerous generations from one exposure. So, several years ago, my big Christmas present to the family was to throw away 2.5 tons of possessions into the dump. It's amazing how expensive throwing stuff away can be.

In two full truckloads, we discarded sculptures worth thousands of dollars... Childhood possessions going back to the 60's... Art, books, records, clothing, furniture, equipment .... none could be remediated unless they were heated to 900 degrees, which would destroy them anyway. It was tragically sad but a decision we tried everything possible to avoid. It was wholeheartedly the correct and only solution based on all of the scientific data I have gathered.

 

I decided to fight back with positive goals. I would create a series of videos on mold exposure that would scientifically and practically explain what my family and tens of thousands of others had gone through. I would fight ignorance and abuse with knowledge. It worked.

Toxic Mold Solutions became the #1 selling, most widely respected film series on the subject of indoor mold. Completely unbiased, the series goes to the biological, building science, and medical reasons for indoor mold risks.

I took over control of the company I co-founded, Biohazard Educational Productions LLC in May of last year.

Since then, we've developed new product lines and are tying together all indoor environmental exposure issues together with related solutions.

From the outset, my goal has been to use a scientific approach and create solutions that are not worse than the problems then intend to cure. With new collaborations and relationships, this goal is becoming more of a reality every day. Avoiding extremes on both ends and discouraging litigation as a means of solving our nation's indoor problems, we are proving to be the reliable, reasonable, and truthful source on all levels."

Copyright © 2008 True-Film incorporated

Remember, other exposure issues can be similarly pressing. Don't be obsessed with mold. Do deal with it.

- Richard Arsenault