Why Are New Homes Moldier?

What's behind the sudden mold epidemic? Experts point to modern home design, including materials used, such as fake stucco (great mold food when wet); the way insulation can trap moisture behind walls; and the fact that today's homes, like office buildings, are more airtight, with air-conditioning and heating systems recirculating contaminated air.  Families can go for months, even years, without knowing where their symptoms are coming from.

New houses are more prone to mold problems than older houses, but a bad leak in any house anywhere in the country can cause a mold problem if not properly taken care of (see tips at bottom).   And what starts as a small mold problem can grow to consume a home.  Melinda Ballard and Ron Allison's house can't even be bulldozed until men in moon suits cut out the Stachybotrys-infested timber, flooring and wallboard, wrap it up and cart it off for burial.  “That's the only safe way to get rid of the stuff,” says David Straus, a mold expert with the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, who found himself throwing up hours after spending just 30 minutes inside Ballard's house.   “I'm still not entirely over it,” says Straus, who has severe hearing loss in one ear from his exposure to the mold.

Melinda Ballard believes her child or husband would have died if providence had not intervened. Their house's copper plumbing sprang a series of leaks starting in 1998. That December, the hardwood floors in the living and dining rooms began to warp. By March 1999, the family (as well as the groundskeeper and nanny) were suffering from headaches, dizziness and fatigue, then respiratory and sinus problems. Not your ordinary runny noses, but profusely bloody runny noses.  “It was grotesque,” Ballard recalls. “We would cough up the hardest stuff you've ever seen. It was blood, but it was hard as a rock.”

Everyone tested negative for allergies, so no one associated the symptoms with the house. Then, on an April 1 plane trip from Austin, Ballard ran into indoor-air-quality consultant Bill Holder.   “He saw me coughing up blood,” she recalls, “and he said, 'What's wrong with you?' I said, 'I don't know. We can't figure it out.' His next question was, 'Had any water damage to your house recently?'   

Holder was on his way to Dallas. He stopped by Dripping Springs on his way back and took samples.   “There was visible mold growing everywhere,” Holder says. He sent the samples to Straus at Texas Tech, who came back on April 23 with a level-4 Stachybotrys diagnosis, advising Ballard and Allison to evacuate immediately. They checked into a Four Seasons hotel -- and that's when Allison realized he couldn't remember his room number.

The former investment banker now carries a note pad to keep track of such things. “It got continually worse,” he says, his voice slow and deliberate.    “I started slipping at work. The president of the company was asking, 'What's wrong with Ron?' The last few weeks, I just sat there and stared at my screen.” He stops for a moment.   “It's hard to accept,” he says.   “You work long and hard to get to a point where you're proud of yourself, and then you go from that to ...” “Mowing the lawn,” Melinda interjects.  “At 33, he's basically having to retire.”

It will be several years before 3-year-old Reese is old enough for cognitive testing. Then there's the ongoing battle with Farmers Insurance, which, Ballard insists, knew about the danger to her family and did nothing to alert or protect them. Ballard has filed a $100 million suit against Farmers. In it she claims, among other things, that Farmers ignored repeated warnings from Richard Roberts of Double R Hardwood Floors that buckling floors had to be removed immediately or else “dangerous molds” could grow.

In addition, Hays County District Attorney Michael Wenk has initiated a grand-jury investigation to consider criminal charges against the insurance company in its handling of Ballard's claim.  Farmers Insurance spokesman Bob Huxel told USA WEEKEND magazine that “Mr. Roberts did not make repeated warnings to Farmers that dangerous molds could grow.” He says Farmers is aware that toxic molds can be a health threat and that Stachybotrys can be neurotoxic. “We believe all of that,” Huxel says, “because we know it's true.”

 Today, signs posted around Melinda Ballard's house read: “DO NOT ENTER -- BIOHAZARD.” It will be years before Ballard and her family see any kind of normal life again. “I just want everyone to know Stachybotrys is something that can happen to them,” Ballard says. 

Arnold Mann, a contributing writer for Time magazine, last wrote for USA WEEKEND about laser eye surgery.