House of horrors

David O'Leary • Published 18 Jun 2010 12:09 1 Comment

A MUM of one has told of her ordeal living in a house that was making herself and her son ill.

Poppy McCourt and her son, Todd, lived for five years at an Eildon Housing Association owned property at Hawdene in Broughton.

However over a year and a half ago a thick black mould began forming on the ceilings and walls of each upstairs room in the property.

Poppy's pleas to Eildon to rectify the situation fell on deaf ears though with one housing manager blaming the mould growth on the position of the beds and even Poppy's breathing in her sleep.

She said: "They just wouldn't listen and kept fobbing me off. Then in the last few months, Todd began having trouble catching his breath in the morning and I knew I had to do something."

What she did was take a swab of the ceiling mould and send it for analysis by Dr Aldridge at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary's Clinical Bacteriology lab.

On this sample was found large numbers of exophiala, penicillium and acremonium species and exceptionally large numbers of several fungal species.

Each of these is known to cause a wide range of illnesses such as skin infections, breathing difficulties, meningitis and septicaemia - a condition which Poppy suffered from last year.

Poppy said: "I couldn't believe it and handed over what I had found to Eildon. "They've now decanted us to another house while the problem is being fixed.

"It's only when we got out of there that we realised how ill we were, thankfully though we're both now feeling a lot better since the move.

"I will be looking for compensation though for the clothes and belongings we've had to throw out because of the mould."

Several other of Poppy's neighbours at the Hawdene complex have also reported similar mould growth.

Eildon Housing Association chief executive, Nile Istephan said: "We are aware of the issues at the Hawdene developmentand have wrote to the residents to garner the extent of the problem.

"Ms McCourt's home seemed to be affected far more than any others and we have supplied her with alternative accomondation until the issue is resolved.

"We are looking at two factors for the mould growth either it's a result of the houses design or it's an issue arising from the properties heating.

"We don't think it's anything to do with people breathing in their sleep, that seems rather implausible. We hope to have this issue resolved as quickly as possible."

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This article appeared in Peeblesshire News 18 Jun 10

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• 

  Truth About Mold
  Unregistered User
  Jun 21, 00:56
  Report comment

  I'm sorry to hear about the mould problems in your community. For accurate information about the health effects of mold, go to http://truthaboutmold.info and http://achemmic.com.
  
  Recommend?   Yes 0     No 0

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