Interview With The Mold Medic, Michael Rubino, Gives Insight Into The Dangers Of Mold – Moms

Michael Rubino is President of All American Restoration and author of the new book, The Mold Medic: An Experts Guide on Mold Removal. Rubino isconcerned about the health of our children and declares that one in four family members experiences adverse reactions to mold without any awareness.Rubino talks to Moms.com about theHLA-DR gene that impacts the way 30% of individuals react to mold, how to locate mold, as well as, how to remove mold, and what families can do moving forward if they suspect mold in their homes.

Moms.com: What made you interested in becoming a mold expert and becoming involved with helping others become more aware of mold?

Michael Rubino (MR):That's a good question. So, since I was five-years-old, my father owns a construction company based out of the New York area. It's called JMC Contracting Corp, and primarily, he was fixing homes that were destroyed in fires. So being around that my entire life, I learned a lot about construction remediation, reconstruction, restoration etc.

After Hurricane Sandy, that area, where he worked in kind of got decimated. There was a lot of problems with remediation properties coming in, and things not being done the right way. People started to get sick. So really in 2013, I started coming across really technical projects with sick people. There were toxins involved, other contaminants than mold. And we started really seeing how this can impact somebody's health.

Moms.com: Are there some parts of the country that you think are more susceptible to mold than others?

(MR):I think humidity plays a big factor. If you look at the statistics of water damaged homes, that'll sort of tell you.

In 1994, a survey found that 50% of homes have a history water damage. So, when you look at that you say, 50% of homes have history of water damage, and we see indoor air pollutants that arise out of that; especially with the COVID right now, we're spending more time at home than ever.

Moms.com: What about school buildings?

(MR):If there's 50% of homes with water damage, schools and buildings are 50%. The age of the home plays a factor into it, too. Another statistic is that one out of every 10 years you're going to have some sort of insurance claim, and most insurance claims are water damage claims. [This means mold issues arise.] Most of the population naturally detoxifies from an indoor air pollutant, but there's a subset of the population that has an HLA-DR gene. It's roughly 30% of the population who has this gene. This gene does not allow the person to detoxify mold the way other people do. That's a problem.

Moms.com: Can you go into that a little bit more about how some people are able to detoxify and some people aren't?

(MR):With a person who can, when indoor air pollutants get into the respiratory tract the recipient body will naturally excrete it out. For certain individuals they have an HLA-DR gene. They basically cannot detoxify. When these things enters their body, it stays in their body.

This predisposition makes things very challenging for somebody who is exposed to mold and bacteria, and once it enters the body, it's not leaving the body.

For 70% of the population this is the opposite. So, those with the HLA-DR gene have to see doctors and do detox programs and take supplements and binders and antifungal, too, to detox their body properly. With this population, the body becomes chronically inflamed; CIRS (chronic inflammatory response syndrome).

Those bodies become inflamed for one reason or another, and mold is a big part of it. It has to do with not being able to detoxify.

Moms.com: What can moms do to properly detoxify homes that have mold?

(MR):Right, one of the neatest tricks involves your toilet bowl.The toilet tank test is one of the best ways to tell if it's time to get a mold inspection. If you lift the toilet tank up, you flip it over, and you look inside the underside of the toilet tank lid and you see any kind of black mold growing on the lid or inside the tank, it's indicative of the fact that there could be mold somewhere in the house.

Because what happens is as mold is in the house and air circulates, wherever there's water, that's where the opportunity for mold to start growing and colonizing.

Moms.com: Is there anything preventative that can be done?

(MR):Absolutely. There's a piece of equipment called the Healthway Super V - buy that piece of equipment and hook it up to your HVAC.It draws air in, recirculates it, and puts the air back out. By getting that unit, you're essentially replacing the need to have these stand alone air purifiers all over the place. You will definitely help purify the air in the house and get rid of that. It's definitely a massive preventative measure. However, if you already have mold, you'll want to remove it before you do that.

Moms.com: How do people get rid of mold in their home?

(MR):It's not something you can really do on your own. But one of the things you want to do as a preventative measure is good housekeeping. Mold actually settles in the dust and combines with the dust. So as you're removing dust, you're removing other indoor air contaminants naturally. If you happen to be a hoarder, you might collect a lot of dust as a result. I'd say good general housekeeping is so important, not only because dust is a nuisance but because of the environmental impact.

Air quality definitely absolutely plays a really big role when it comes to mold prevention and mold in general.

Moms.com: What should parents look for before they move into a new home?

(MR):You want to check windows and doors: entry points. You want to check basements and crawl spaces, because those are the most neglected. It's most important to check those areas. The most neglected areas in our home are often not maintained properly which lead to mold issues. And my final recommendation is get a home inspection done, specifically a mold inspection.

I think that if you're part of the population who is kind of sensitive to your environment, I say, you definitely want to get a mold inspection on top of the home inspection.

Moms.com: What are the side effect of mold exposure?

(MR):The most common ones you hear about are respiratory infections, allergy-like symptoms that feel like seasonal allergies, or something that feels like the onset of a cold that just never goes away.

Moms.com: What are resources for Moms who are concerned about mold?

(MR):Getting a particle counter or a dust particle counter for $50-$60. These will count, let's say, 500 particles outside the house but then counts 5,000 inside the house, this will indicate a need for an inspection. I wrote a book called The Mold Medic.

The Mold Medicis available on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble. It's really meant to help you if you have mold in your house. It goes from "I suspect I have mold in my house" to "I solved the problem." The book includes how to find a good testing company, how to find a good remediation program, and how to remove it. It's written very simply in layman's terms it can connect with the audience.

Moms.com: Michael, is there anything else that you would like to add ?

(MR):The average person takes 20,000 breaths per day, that's 20,000 opportunities to potentially be exposed. The number one thing that we consume is air, it's more important than drinking water - it's the air we breathe.

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Interview With The Mold Medic, Michael Rubino, Gives Insight Into The Dangers Of Mold - Moms