To ask, how bad is mould? Any doctors about?

[WillYouPutYourCoatOn]

I've had a cough for ages. Been to the docs, and they can't see much wrong. Always worst when I'm in my bedroom. I had assumed because I'm laying down.

We have a lot of built in storage that's all along an external wall, and one of the wardrobes, we never really use daily. I open it regularly to pop in Christmas pressies we buy throughout the year though.

I decided to clear it out today, it's full of DH old coats etc. I pulled the first out, and whilst the outer edge I could see was fine, the edge more "in" the wardrobe was covered in green dusty mould. Every coat was the same. The cupboard goes back probably 8ft and there must be a crack in on the wall or something as when I pulled all the coats off the rail and shone a torch to the back, the corner of the wall, and up to about 3ft high is all black and green mould spore dots.

I then panicked and started pulling furniture away from walls and there's a small amount behind our headboard and quite a lot under a dressing table in the other corner, which I hadn't seen because I'd put a load of boxes under there.

Is this really bad, can you get really ill from this? I'm going to remove all the mould, and establish/fix the cause, but we've been breathing this in for god knows how long. Is this why I'm coughing? Can I be tested for it? My under eyes have become unusually puffy too.

Does anyone know how serious this is from direct experience? Google presents very contradictory information.

Black mould is the stuff you need to really watch out for health wise, I used to work in full poverty.
Once you've got rid of the allergen the allergy should stop as a pp said.
Agree best have a massive clear out, minimal clothes and furniture against walls, strip the paper, paint instead so you can see if it re-occurs, and adapt your behaviour to prevent it, as pp said, ventilation is key. Also it seems weird but adequate heating is also important.

Most is dusty green stuff. Some is black though.

What does the black do from your knowledge please? Google swings between, "ah, just get rid of it and open the windows, it'll be fine" to "you may have mushrooms growing in your lungs". Yes really.

Asthmatic here, our house can get mouldy and we do have to fight it back sometimes.
When we do I improve pretty quickly. (A few days, maybe).
Uncontrolled asthma is not great long term though, so if your cough's been going on a while, I think they say more than 8 weeks, it couldn't hurt to see a doctor to be on the safe side.

What does the black do from your knowledge please? Google swings between, "ah, just get rid of it and open the windows, it'll be fine" to "you may have mushrooms growing in your lungs". Yes really.

Snort Well the black mould is aspergillus. It is dangerous to one's health if you happen to be someone whose immune system can't deal with it and it sets up a colony in your lungs. This is a real thing. In fact was reading a thread on MN about someone diagnosed with this very recently.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/aspergillosis/

As you can see by reading, this is 'rare'. However I do think many people's bodies are still aggravated by mould spores, mine certainly is, even if it's just like allergy symptoms, those are symptoms I'd rather not have. Plus the smell of mould is horrible. I am far more aware of it since Covid distorted my smell.

I developed asthma due to living in a place with mould.

It's very, vary bad for you and can lead to long term issues (I don't know if this is only black mould though)

Definitely go to the doctors about that. Hope you manage to get it all sorted, its so hard to clear it but once it's cleared just keep on top of cleaning it and keeping it dry and ventilated.

PM

Some really useful info on here.