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American Morning
Toxic Mold in Your Own Home
Aired August 16, 2001 - 10:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: In last year's Oscar-award-winning movie, "Erin Brockovich," Julia Roberts portrayed the feisty environmental activist who helped win a huge legal settlement for people sickened by toxins. Now the real-life Erin Brockovich is once again taking on an environmental threat, it may be found in your own home.
We're talking about toxic mold. It's sometimes referred to as black mold, and is thought to cause the sick building syndrome. The mold may cause a range of health risks, including a serious respiratory problem.
Erin Brockovich is scheduled to speak about the problem today in Washington, first she stopped by our bureau to talk with us. Erin, good morning, it's good to see you.
ERIN BROCKOVICH, ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST: Hi, how are you? Nice to be here.
KAGAN: I'm doing OK. Now we're talking about mold. We're not talking about the stuff that I saw in my shower this morning, right? This is something much more serious.
BROCKOVICH: Yes it is. We're talking about Stachybotrys.
KAGAN: What is that, where is it found, and how do you know if you have it in your house?
BROCKOVICH: Well Stachybotrys --- I am a homeowner with a house laced with Stachybotrys, unbeknownst to me. You usually find it with heavy water intrusion, usually do to construction defects. That's what happened in my home.
KAGAN: Is it a geographic thing where you're more likely to get it in certain parts of the country than other parts of the country?
BROCKOVICH: Not to my understanding. It will find itself, again, where you have heavy water intrusion. In my home, for instance, I had a major construction defect on the roof and the windows, and water found its way through the roof, through the windows, down the walls and started growing, and almost encapsulating my home.
It can make you certainly sick. I've seen the health effects myself from chronic fatigue, to skin rashes, to respiratory, to sinus, to chronic headaches.
KAGAN: Is it the kind of thing you might feel those symptoms before you actually see the mold, because it might be on the inside of the walls?
BROCKOVICH: That's exactly what had happened to me. I was sick before I ever realized that I had a construction defect and a mold problem. I thought I had some type of hanger-oner flu or sinus infection that I just could not get rid of.
KAGAN: How do you get rid of it in your house? Why not just have it treated? It's not that simple?
BROCKOVICH: It is not that simple because the mold spores, if they're not all removed, will come back. And I have been under a horrific abatement process room by room, and you have to come in and literally isolate what the source is, correct the problem. Then take down the dry wall, abate the mold.
You can't always get it, so then you have to encapsulate it. Then you're left with a room, or rooms, or an entire house that's been taken apart that you now have to put back together. So it's very costly.
KAGAN: I was going to say, I would imagine financially this could be very difficult.
BROCKOVICH: It is very difficult. It's emotionally draining, it wreaks havoc of your checking account.
KAGAN: Homeowner's insurance doesn't insure it, Erin? Homeowner's insurance?
BROCKOVICH: Homeowner's insurance did not cover mine because it doesn't cover water intrusion. So, unfortunately, I'm involved in a litigation with the builder of the home. It's -- it has been a nightmare. I see many people who have this problem that either abandoned their homes, burn them down, they just give up. They don't know what else to do.
KAGAN: So who are you speaking to today? What's your message?
BROCKOVICH: I am speaking to the National Press Club today. We're going to talk a little bit about the movie, a lot about the case, a lot about hexa-valent chromium and other toxic sites in the United States.
KAGAN: Erin Brockovich, thanks for stopping by and telling us about this kind of toxic mold in your own home. Appreciate it.
BROCKOVICH: Thank you. It was nice to be here today.
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