PRESS RELEASE W-FIVE

TOXIC MOULD IS A MAJOR HEALTH PROBLEM…IS IT IN YOUR HOUSE?

Toronto (December 22, 1999) - The Saskatchewan house has been in Marilyn Parney's family for generations. But now, thanks to toxic mould, it stands empty, a toxic little house on the Canadian prairie. W-FIVE investigates a deadly intruder, Tuesday, January 18 at 10:00 p.m. ET (check local listings). Tom Clark is the host of W-FIVE.

Last year, when Marilyn came back to the family home for a Christmas visit, she awakened, panic-stricken that she was unable to catch her breath. As soon as she opened a window and got some fresh air, she felt better. The cause of her distress was the deadly stachybotrys growing in the basement. The black mouldy stains on the wall, caused by a repaired sewer backup, had never really dried and the mould continued to grow.

Marilyn ended up in emergency. An air quality expert advised her to get out of the house when the lab found stachybotrys in the house. Its potent and unpredictable spores produce chemicals that can make you sick. All it needs is moisture and you probably won't see it until it's too late because it grows behind walls. And your insurance policy probably won't see it either, since they employ mould-exemption clauses. The problem can be extremely expensive to rectify, sometimes involving a virtual gutting of the building.

Building engineer Jim White tells W-FIVE contributing reporter Valerie Pringle this type of mould exists in about one in three houses and that it constitutes a serious problem in one in ten. Last year W-FIVE exposed the issue of mould in schools. Now W-FIVE finds a homeowners' class-action lawsuit in Ontario as well as a B.C. woman who fell ill and whose dog died from the mould in her condo. Do local health officials care? The McIntoshes of Port Perry don't think so. Their home was found full of stachybotrys. Their first clue was that the paint wouldn't stick. Their asthmatic kids were getting sicker. So they took out a $35,000 second mortgage to rid their home of the toxin. Their insurance wouldn't cover it and they received no help from any level of government. Individual families are on their own when it comes to this issue.

"Home, Mouldy Home" was produced by John Darroch for W-FIVE. Tuesday January 18, 2000 at 10:00 PM.

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