Is Bleach a Good Mold Killer?
Posted by George Salter on Tue, Oct 06, 2009 @ 09:46 AM
Chlorine bleach is well known for killing bacteria, and it has no
rivals when it comes to removing color. But is bleach effective in
killing mold? Not really. Here's why:
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It is too diluted and thus too weak to permanently kill mold unless
the mold is simply sitting on top of a hard surface like a counter top
or sink.
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What little killing power chlorine bleach does have is diminished significantly as the
bleach sits in warehouses and on grocery store shelves or inside your home or business
[50% loss in killing power in just the first 90 days inside a never opened jug or
container] Chlorine ions constantly escapes through the plastic walls of its containers.
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Chlorine bleach's
ion structure also prevents chlorine from penetrating into porous
materials such as dry wall and wood--- It just stays on the outside
surface, whereas mold has protected enzyme roots growing inside the
porous construction materials. When you spray porous surface molds
with bleach, the water in the water solution soaks into the wood while
the bleach chemical sits atop the surface, gasses off, and thus only
partially kills the surface layer of mold while the water penetration
of the building materials fosters further mold growth.
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Chlorine Bleach is not registered with the EPA as a disinfectant to
kill mold. You can verify that important fact yourself
when you are unable to find an EPA registration number for killing mold on the label of
any brand of chlorine bleach.