Investing in a mold training course is crucial to those involved in mold related issues. An ideal course should cover the basic biology of molds, common indoor molds and their associated health effects, and factors that lead to mold growth. For those professionals who send their sample to a lab for analyses, it is important to understand the limitations of the testing methods that labs use and the meaning of some of the terms used on reports. Those investigating mold growth in building know how laboratory results can sometimes be difficult to interpret. The terms used in laboratory reports are sometimes very confusing. What, for example, do terms like “Aspergillus/Penicillium”, “unidentified basidiospores”, and “unidentified ascospores”, “unidentified spores” exactly mean?

When it comes to interpretation of laboratory results, lack of a strong background in microbiology can hamper the efficiency of a mold investigator. For instance, with air samples, indoor airborne mold concentrations are usually compared with outdoor concentrations or another suitable control sample. But, is it right to compare and draw conclusions based on indoor/outdoor concentrations of Aspergillus/Penicillium, unidentified basidiospores, unidentified ascospores and unidentified spores? The answer is NO since in many cases the “unidentified” spores indoors are diffrent from those outdoors. Without some basic knowledge of the biology of molds, one may not understand the fact that unidentified ascospores reported in an indoor sample could be different from the ones reported in an outdoor sample. Similarly, the Aspergillus/Penicillium reported indoors could be diffrent from those reported outdoors. In some cases the Aspergillus/Penicillium spores could even belong to molds other than Aspergillus or Penicillium.

Apart from those investigating mold growth in buildings, property managers, insurance adjusters and lawyers involved in mold issues need to invest in a mold course so that they are not at the mercy of “experts” even for simple issues, and that they know what questions to ask the experts they hire for their mold projects.

It is important to know that there is a lot of misinformation out there regarding mold and decisions based on misinformation can be very costly. An employer should consider investing in a mold awareness course for their employees. Although it is widely believed in the scientific community that mold can cause ill-health, sometimes this belief is overstretched by the public. It is therefore important that employees understand what mold can and cannot do.

For the last 2 years, MBL has been offering a unique mold training course at their location in Mississauga. The objective of the MBL mold training course is to provide participants with skills and background information to enable them recognize indoor Mold, develop effective sampling strategies, interpret laboratory results and perform effective mold remediation. The MBL Mold Training Course provides insight into the causes of mold growth and control. It also provides up to date information on the most important indoor molds, including species of Penicillium, Aspergillus, Fusarium, Trichoderma, Cladosporium, Mucor, Rhizopus, Alternaria and Scopulariopsis. Mycotoxins that may occur in an indoor environment are briefly covered.

For details about this course and the course dates, please visit http://www.moldtraining.ca