Health & Safety

Growth starts in hours and becomes visible in weeks. There is no published point at which it becomes hazardous, and here is the measure that works instead.

Infants are genuinely more exposed, and the evidence is more specific than either the scare pages or the reassurance pages admit. Including when to call a doctor.

In an old basement the damp is rarely the thing that hurts you. It is what turns intact old materials into damaged ones, and then sends you down to disturb them.

Archives and museums publish exact figures for this. They also show that the targets conflict, so no single basement setting protects everything.

Colour identifies nothing. What the species actually tells you is how wet your wall has been, which is the more useful question anyway.

These insects need humidity you can measure. Which ones you have, and where you find them, is a moisture reading you did not have to pay for.

Which basement triggers have real evidence behind them, and which popular fixes national asthma guidelines grade as making no difference.

The same humidity that ruins tins and flour is what potatoes and carrots want. One hygrometer reading decides which half of your pantry belongs down there.

The symptoms are ordinary – it is the pattern that identifies them. How to tell mould from a cold, flu, pollen or dust mites, and when to see a doctor.

An evidence-graded answer: what damp and mould are actually shown to do, what is not supported by research, who is genuinely at higher risk, and when to see a doctor.