Will an Air Purifier Help with Mold?

Using an air purifier, along with other preventive measures, can offer a long-term solution for people with mold allergies to consider. This solution can be especially useful in locations known for mold across the country or in humid regions. An air purifier can also help in common places for mold in the home, such as a basement. Although an air purifier can help mold spores in the air in the long term, only physically cleaning the mold and removing the moisture that allowed it to grow will solve a visible mold growth problem.

While air purifiers remove mold spores, they don't address the underlying problems that can cause mold growth in your home. Although mold spores float freely almost everywhere, actively growing mold colonies will not only dramatically increase the count of mold spores found in the air, but can also produce highly toxic by-products called mycotoxins. You don't need to have allergies or asthma to suffer the serious side effects that result from exposure to mycotoxins.

What is Mold and Why is it a Problem?

Finding and Removing Mold That Grows Indoors Can Be a Nightmare for Homeowners. This annoying family of fungi can grow and spread rapidly across virtually any surface in the home and, if not treated quickly, can cause major problems.

Because mold is a fungus that depends on high humidity and moisture to grow, finding a large source of mold indoors can indicate deeper problems in the home, such as pipe leaks, poor ventilation in kitchens and bathrooms, and overall high humidity. When mold grows in these areas, it can continue to aggravate the problem, as it can break down organic food materials and cause wood materials and fabrics to deteriorate. Worse, mold releases spores into the air to reproduce, and these spores can be harmful to human health when inhaled. Prolonged exposure to high concentrations of mold spores can cause health problems, such as allergic reactions and asthma attacks, and some fungi can even be toxic in large quantities. Addressing a mold problem in the home is a high priority, both to keep your family healthy and because once the mold has spread to too many places or has grown too much, you may need to be treated by a professional disposal and decontamination company.

How Does Mold Grow?

There are two main components that mold needs to flourish and thrive: a humid environment and a food source.

Food, for mold, can be a series of very common household items, such as wood, fabrics, fibers, even organic residues and oils that we leave on surfaces through touch. With so many potential food sources, the element of moisture is the most critical to mold growth. If the humidity is above 60% indoors, mold can easily grow and spread. Even lower humidity levels can cause mold growth if other conditions apply.

To find a habitable place to grow, mold sends spores into the air, tiny seed-like particles that float in the air until they settle on a surface. If small spores find food and moisture there, they will quickly take hold and spread. Sometimes mold spores come from other mold patches that grow inside the house, but just as often they can float from the outside, particularly in areas that have damp and leafy areas nearby.Do Air Purifiers Eliminate Mold? While an air purifier cannot remove mold from a surface once it starts to grow, using an air purifier with a true HEPA filter is a crucial part of removing mold spores from the air. Mold can cause serious problems for your health and your home. Finding an air purifier that effectively kills and removes mold spores is an essential first step in cleaning the air in your home and making it safer for you and your family. Using an air purifier can help improve indoor air quality by trapping mold spores.

However, you'll still be exposed to other indoor air pollutants that weren't trapped. Because of this fact, an air purifier can remove mold from the immediate environment but it will not remove all spores from your home. In addition, mold can grow and spread rapidly and air purifiers cannot stop its growth as they lack detection capability. You want to select an air cleaner with a sealed system and a certified HEPA filter that is made of hot-rolled glass fibers (fiberglass) or a synthetic material. In general, air purifiers work through a system of filtration methods to improve the air quality in your home.

Because mold spores are usually between 1 and 20 microns in size HEPA filters are perfect for extracting spores from the air. Air purifiers are best for general air cleaning as they focus not only on air humidity but also on allergens and pollutants such as pollen, mold spores or smoke. However it's important to note that while HEPA air purifiers can efficiently filter out most of the mold spores found in indoor air you should first remove any existing visible molds if you have a problem with them in your home. Ferastraoaru recommends keeping an air purifier nearby so that it can trap any molds released into the air whether they come from existing problems or if they are infiltrating from outside if they are floating in the air then the cleaner will filter them out before they have chance to settle on surfaces. The combination filter not only removes airborne contaminants such as pollen, molds spores and pet dander but also removes odors gases and smoke from the air.

Air purifiers help with molds because the best ones usually contain one or more HEPA filters through which the air in your home is sucked in order to remove indoor pollutants such as molds spores dust pollen and other allergens. Mold air purifiers offer perfect solution for filtering most molds found in indoor air while it's an ongoing task keeping number of molds low in your home is key to controlling allergic reactions to them.