DIY test for ‘toxic’ mould on its way
Homeowners, tenants and landlords will soon be able to buy a DIY testing kit to check whether the mould in their homes is one of three kinds dangerous to their health.
The American test kit is being imported by Levin-based businesswoman Jo Kirk, who is to sell it under the Detect4Mould brand.
It is designed to detect dangerous stachybotrys (often referred to as ‘‘toxic black mould’’), but also aspergillus and penicillium moulds, which can exacerbate existing medical conditions.
‘‘If you are buying a property, you can test instantly on the spot,’’ Kirk said.
Tenants could use the tests to check on moulds in a bid to get landlords to take action.
‘‘If you are a tenant, you can go and prove to the landlord that you have done the test, and it is telling you that this mould is not good, it’s dangerous,’’ Kirk said.
Damp and mould are a major issue in New Zealand housing.
A 2014 general survey found six in every 100 households had a ‘‘major’’ problem with damp or mould, and 26 in 100 had a ‘‘minor’’ problem. It included people with both high, and low, personal incomes.
Kirk said the DIY testing kit would be on sale within the next four weeks.
People using it take a swab and conduct two tests themselves, one to identify whether stachybotrys is present, the other to test for aspergillus and penicillium moulds.
Kirk said a positive result indicated the area sampled contained detectable levels of these moulds, but did not necessary indicate a serious mould issue.
‘‘The actions you take will depend on many factors including the extent of the mould infestation, the specific type of mould, the overall air quality in your living spaces and the costs involved,’’ she said.
‘‘For serious mould issues, it is strongly recommended that you follow up with a laboratory test.’’
Kirk said people could send positive mould results to Citilabs in Dunedin.
Kirk, a former ambulance officer and human drugs tester, is about to score a second New Zealand first.
Currently, there are no DIY methtesting kits verified for accuracy by a government agency that homeowners can use to test whether the drug has been smoked in their property causing contamination over the level acceptable under law.
But Kirk has paid government agency ESR (the Institute of Environmental Science and Research) to test her Netherlands-made Check4Meth DIY testing kits, and, after a nine-month wait, she expects to get the official pass next week.
Federation of Property Investors executive director Andrew King said landlords have been crying out for officially sanctioned DIY test kits as a means of setting up a protection regime for their properties that the insurance companies can accept.
For that they needed a simple and reliable ‘‘yes/no’’ testing kit. A positive result for meth would force a landlord to bring in a professional meth tester.
Landlords needed to be able to generate meth-testing evidence that would be both acceptable to insurers and evidence to help evict drug-using tenants.
‘‘Without that, we wouldn’t be able to meet the standard for evidence of the Tenancy Tribunal,’’ King said.
The ESR testing was too expensive, and too slow, which could feed into the cost of kits, he said.
‘‘We want as many landlords to do as many tests as possible, so we want to make it easy, and cheap to do reliable tests,’’ King said.