Una crisis de salud oculta tras los desastres naturales: la proliferación de moho en los hogares

TALLAHASSEE, Florida. — After successfully becoming the best passer of her life, Danae Daniels decided to relax and start a new semester at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. But when your apartment door opened off campus, it was met with an unbearable smell and a devastating reality.

“I got my room in my dorm, in my room, in my nicest card,” Daniels said. “Moho in the closet, in the bath, literally in every part.”

During your ausencia, a series of serious natural disasters have affected the Tallahassee area and have already caused widespread damage. According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, the torments of the year 2024 have caused damage estimated in the millions of dollars, forcing family changes and ruining many businesses.

Pero el daño no fue solo material. As the community worked to recover, moho took hold in residences and buildings throughout the city, and turned the natural disaster into a prolonged crisis with public health consequences.

“If part of a house is exposed to flooding or leaking and is not completely in place for 24 to 48 hours, then it is sure that someone will appear,” explained Parham Azimi, a research associate at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, who studies the relationship between alcohol exposure and respiratory health, particularly when natural disasters occur.

“After a significant torment, with increased frequency, respiratory infections increase, especially in houses that are flooded,” explained.

A basis for the problem

An estimated 47% of residential buildings in the United States have damp or damp. So even though the last time the hurricanes came to an end, this presents the health problems associated with the person.

As 29% of the country’s population lives in flood-prone conditions, there is considerable risk in terms of exposure to life expectancy and allergens and respiratory entrapment capabilities. This already makes 95 million people vulnerable when extreme weather events occur.

This situation will not include those living in interior areas of the country that also experience crecidas, such as the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, which experience severe flooding during the passage of the Huracán. Helen last year, nor those who live in their rain-damaged homes in the Texas mountain region is true.

The health consequences of these allergic reactions lead to serious respiratory conditions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), common symptoms include nasal congestion, chemical crisis and skin irritation.

Prolonged exposure can generate more serious complications, such as hypersensitivity neumonitis — a common small inflammation of the lungs — and infections caused by micotoxins, which can affect the nervous system, hígado and riñones.

Now, thanks to President Donald Trump’s records and policy changes, there is also the continuity of an important federal program that helps repair lives affected by natural disasters, as well as assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

An invisible enemy

One of the criminal mayors of the month is that many have passed inadvertently over the course of months or years inclusive, dejando aux personas expuestas sin que se den cuenta.

Houston resident Lauren Lowenstein knows all too well. “For five years, my family’s health has been busy and we don’t know for what,” he said.

After conducting a study of the relative mold index of the environment, Lowenstein discovered that toxic substances were being created inside the walls of your home due to excessive condensation in the air conditioning system. She, her spouse and her two children will be forced to immediately abandon private life to become new.

“The moho was not visible and we do not take any signal of which this creciendo,” he said.

And more: even if you detect moho, eliminating it is an expensive challenge. Soon the removal of an amount between $1,222 and $3,751, according to the Angi House service platform. Without an embargo, in severe cases the price can exceed $30,000. Many also, the people who have taken out insurance who suffer damages for me must assume part of the waste.

Daniels, for example, left his apartment in Tallahassee and rented a hotel when he hoped to be relocated to a renovated unit. Additionally, you will have to replace all your losses.

The cost of satisfactory disposal is unaffordable for many families, Azimi said, and finding accessible alternatives can be difficult. These difficulties involve following expuestos al moho.

“For low-income and marginalized communities, the risks are the same,” Azimi said.

Slow and limited support

For this to help the government, the times of hope can be very long, confirmed the Rev. Mac Legerton, founder of the Disaster Survivaland Resiliency School, of the Robeson government in North Carolina. “In many cases, the family must choose between living in safe conditions or remaining without a home,” he laments.

A 2019 Department of Housing and Urban Development-funded review of 88 disaster grants found that the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program began distributing requested funds, on a priority basis, 20 months after the initial disaster. In many cases, embolisms take two years or more.

“In our disaster response system, eliminating the virus is one of the most prioritized areas at the local, state and national level,” Legerton said.

The Legerton organization runs a program called “cazadores de moho,” a hands-on capacity and education initiative that equips Robeson Superintendent’s people with the tools and knowledge needed to safely remove moho from homes, churches and businesses after natural disasters.

The program also offers free data removal services for vulnerable communities. Explains that he created a response to the poor aid opportunity in this area of ​​central North Carolina.

Hope is not charged

Tanya Locklear experienced this among the significant events that brought Hurricanes Matthew and Florence to her home in Pembroke, North Carolina, in 2016 and 2018, respectively.

Ultimately, your life was contaminated by me.

Request for assistance for the state’s ReBuild NC program in August 2021, but, according to this report, your work was not approved until November 2023. Repair work began in February 2024, several years after you submitted the request.

Locklear confirmed that this case only improved due to the efforts of local advocates, including pressure from community leaders and Legerton’s organization.

Without an embargo, initial returns have affected your family’s health and well-being. While you hoped for help, Locklear and his children would remain alive in unsanitary conditions for the moho. She knows that everyone suffers from problems like headaches, nasal bleeding and difficulty breathing.

Today, Locklear assured that he had respiratory problems, which shows the risks in a large place of living in homes infested with moho.

Legerton, who works with his team directly with affected people in North Carolina, urges that lawmakers and officials work to streamline disaster relief programs to ensure that assistance is effective and timely to affected families and communities across the country. country.

According to Legerton and other public health experts, government officials also need to increase funds for moho cleanup and disposal to prevent people who attack and prevent health problems in a major plaza.

Furthermore, there is a need to enforce stricter building standards and promote flood-resistant housing designs to reduce the risk of pollution in disaster-vulnerable areas.

In terms of preventive policy, Azimi says, millions of people could be exposed to unsanitary living conditions for much longer.

“As climate change intensifies, hurricanes and storms will be more frequent and destructive, increasing the risk of moho-related infections,” Azimi assured.