A dust-like, colored, microscopic spore. A “spore” is a microscopic organism that can multiply on its own. The mold that you can see on cheese, for example, is billions of little spores, which continuously multiply while under the right conditions. Mold can only grow in moist spaces. There are over 1.5 million types of mold that exist, but only some are harmful or deadly.
The most common types of mold that you will encounter in our industry are penicillium, aspergillus, cladosporium and stachybotrys.
The most dangerous (and deadly) mold out of the above is stachybotrys. When a mold test is taken to determine how much mold is in the air, any spores of stachybotrys (which, remember, are microscopic and invisible to the naked eye) detected would cause the test to Fail.
The other three types of mold, penecillium, aspergillus and cladosporium are more commonly found and are also dangerous but in larger quantities.