Have you smelled a musty smell in your home or workplace? Has the musty smell gotten worse over time? Has the musty smell developed in an area where you have visible mold or have had water damage such as flooding? Musty and moldy smells are a telltale indicator that you likely have some type of mold or water damage problem.

While air testing can be extremely important in assessing an indoor air quality or mold issue, noticing a musty smell is the noses equivalent of air testing. When you smell a musty or mold smell, you are not actually smelling mold spores as they are typically odorless, but instead, you are smelling MVOC’s. MVOCs are microbial volatile organic compounds. Essentially, they are volatile gases that are emitted from mold growth during portions of the the growth cycle of the mold. Musty and moldy smells are important to mold attorneys, experienced physicians and to mold investigators as they are a known “red flag” for exposure assessment. Experienced individuals, such as the San Diego toxic mold lawyers at LaFave Law know that musty smells are an indicator for a potential mold problem. The environmental and mold attorneys at LaFave Law also are experienced to know that musty smells can also help to determine your exposure to potentially harmful mold or other indoor air quality problems.

If you smell a musty or mold smell, consider hiring a testing company and consulting a qualified physician (assuming you or someone else who is exposed to the mold is sick). You should also report them to your landlord, property manager or whoever is responsible for building maintenance. Also, you should consider calling an experienced mold attorney at LaFave Law to discuss your situation. We can talk to you about your situation and explain why important industry literature including information from the EPA and California Department of Health Services recognizes that musty and moldy smells can be an important indicator and assessment tool to determine if you have a mold or water damage problem. In fact, the San Diego mold attorneys at LaFave Law have actually argued and won trials in Court based on their clients smelling musty and moldy smells. As experienced toxic mold lawyers, we have a track record in dealing with musty and moldy smells in the context of a lawsuit or pre-lawsuit assessment and we would be happy to discuss those considerations with you.