Could there be a hidden danger in your home? Some believe toxic mold is to blame for their health problems.

WJBF News Channel 6's Mary Morrison investigates.

Mold. It can grow just about anywhere. In our homes. Where we work. Even where we worship.

Hilda Skelley, formally an associate pastor at an Augusta church, says a mold related illness cost her thousands of dollars and left her disabled.

Hilda Skelley, Augusta: "Lost my status, lost my position, lost probably 95 percent of my friends...lost everything that I thought mattered."

Kim Moody worked in the office at an Aiken County golf course. She says the roof leaked, mold grew and she got sick.
 
Kim Moody, Columbia County, GA: "I'd go to work in the morning time, my face would be fine. I'd leave and my face would be swollen, my eyes were swollen, I broke out all over and I couldn't walk." Moody says she lost her job, her income and her home.

Iris Harden, a songwriter, met both women on line. It is here, in Cyberspace, that she and other mold victims share their stories.

Iris Harden, Thomson, GA: "I found out, ah man, there are people all over the country, I'm not alone, it's everywhere"

"A minister, an office worker, a songwriter. Three local women...from different walks of life...All claim exposure to mold made their lives miserable."

Many in the medical community are NOT convinced that mold causes disease. The official position at the Medical College of Georgia is that there is no such thing as toxic mold. Instead, it's thought that certain people are simply allergic to it.

Toxin or allergen?

The medical debate continues.

Either way, most people agree its best not to take mold lightly.

People like Jennifer Sharpe.

Her kids stayed sick after moving into their Columbia County home. "There was a musty smell in the house that just kept getting worse. I didn't know where it was coming from. That's what led me to David Toole."

Toole is a home inspector.

Morrison: "You literally have to crawl under the house?"

David Toole, Home Inspector: "Absolutely".

Morrison: "Show us what you did the day you came out to inspect her home"

David Toole, Home Inspector: "We take a culture, take a sample, put it in here and send to the lab"

In this case, the results are positive.

The homeowners decide to seal off the crawl space...but discover the problem doesn't stop there. "The people who did our crawl space encapsulation started taking off some of the sheet rock and noticed a hugh problem, they found huge amounts of mold behind the sheet rock."

The homeowners shell out more money to correct the problem. The remediation works, the mold levels drop, and the children?

"They're healthy...back to what they were before this discovery"

Something these three women are hoping for as well...

There are several government websites that offer advice for cleaning up mold in your home or business:

Occupational Safety & Health Administration Guide To Mold In The Workplace:
http://www.osha.gov/dts/shib/shib101003.html

Centers For Disease Control – Mold:
http://www.cdc.gov/mold/

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – Mold:
http://www.epa.gov/mold/

FEMA – Removing Mold:
http://www.fema.gov/rebuild/recover/mold.shtm

FEMA – Mold, A Health Hazard:
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=20379

FEMA – Mold Remediation:
http://www.fema.gov/government/grant/pa/9580_100.shtm

National Ag Safety Database – Mold
http://www.cdc.gov/nasd/docs/d001201-d001300/d001270/d001270.html