Abstract
A common moisture-related problem in Sweden and other countries, is mold odor indoors. The general perception is that mold odor indicates hazardous hidden mold. However, some grey literature studies indicate that the source of mold odor might not be substantial amounts of mold, but rather chloroanisoles (CAs) which are biomethylated from chlorophenols (CPs) in moist conditions. Products containing CPs were commonly used world-wide as wood preservatives in the 1960-70s and problems with indoor mold odor have been reported in buildings where such products have been used. In Sweden, one of the main uses of CPs in buildings was in wooden constructions exposed to big moisture loads, such as sill plates and crawl space ceilings. Here we aimed to determine the potential presence and level of mold growth on wood treated with CPs in one school building with reported odor problems built in the stated time period. Odorous wooden samples were taken and analyzed for mold growth. No mold was detected by the naked eye, but some growth was seen using a microscope. We presently investigate more schools and samples, but so far our results question that mold odor depends on substantial amounts of mold.
Highlights
A common moisture-related problem in Sweden, as well as other Nordic countries, is mold odor indoors
The odor of CAs has been mistaken for mold odor due to the suspicion for mold growth in the constructions exposed to high moisture loads, such as sill plates
The sample of the crawl space ceiling is considerably darker than the sill plate sample, making it harder to distinguish any growth at an ocular level
Summary
A common moisture-related problem in Sweden, as well as other Nordic countries, is mold odor indoors. There have been reports and other studies that indicate that the source of mold odor might not always be actual mold but rather something else [1][2]. One theory is that the source for mold odor in these buildings are chloroanisoles (CAs) which are biomethylated from chlorophenols (CPs) [3][4]. CPs in themselves are not very odorous but the CAs have very low odor thresholds [2][5]. The odor of CAs has been mistaken for mold odor due to the suspicion for mold growth in the constructions exposed to high moisture loads, such as sill plates. Malodor from pressurepreservative treated (PPT) sill plates have been previously investigated by the Swedish Wood Preservation Institute and correlation between mold growth and malodor was not found [1]. The investigation did show a connection between malodor and moisture content in the sill plates
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