I was talking to one of my customers in Calgary today. He does mold remediation. He was working on a home that had a mold spore count in the neighborhood of 240,000 per cubic meter. I understand that this count is extremely high. Anyways, they had treat the home using UV systems as well as other treatments they use. They also had to clean the carpeting and they chose to clean using only Releasit/Cimex system. They analysts doing the followup test were walking all over the home including across the carpeted area (of course this would cause anything in the carpet to become airborne). They got a mold spore count down below 5000. They were extremely impressed. This appears to give us some, at least, anecdotal evidence that Releasit also may have some use in encapsulating mold spores as well.

Rick Thode
Releasit/Cimex Canada

Probably; but also, I think Releasit contains some Isopropyl alcohol. That may have an effect as well.

Thanks for sharing that information Rick. This is the second report I have heard relating to Releasit reducing mold. I believe that there are 3 possible reasons why this may be occurring.

1) Encapsulating any contaminant (in this case mold spores) in a polymer will logically reduce its exposure and make it less of a threat to the indoor environment.
2) Releasit contains Tea Tree extract and alcohol and both of these have some antiseptic qualities.
3) Low moisture cleaning is not as likely to exacerbate mold growth.

As I said, this is the second report I've heard about the reduction of mold with Releasit. Of course these two incidents could just be a fluke, but if this trend continues we'll be able to get some data on this. And this sure would be an aid in the treatment of mold in the indoor environment.




Rick Gelinas

I would think it has more to do with encapsulation of the soil bundle than anything else.
A person I know has received great reports from a library he does, that they have noticed a great reduction in the dusting problem that they had prior to the encapsulation cleaning system being introduced to their facility.
Not sure about the tea tree oil and alcohol amounts in Releasit and their ability to kill mold

I used to handle Tea Tree Oil a few years ago and represented an Australian manufacturer, and probably sold over 10 tonnes of the stuff - never could get used to the fragrance it has but I do remember that it has a finite amount of activity against bacteria and fungi, as 2% TTO was used in anti-acne products for example. Also about 0.2% - 0.4% was the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration of TTO against 'aspergillus niger' and 'candida albicans' and about the same MIC for various gram positive and gram negative bacteria, so we had it in a mouthwash and an after-sun cream...

TTO contains several complex higher alcohols of the terpene family which are closely related to pine oils which we all know has some disinfecting properties.

Let's not forget the presence of the surfactant in these products, which also can have an effect on bacteria, spores and fungi. That, plus the IPA, is probably enough to decrease the floral contamination. Then of course, it's bundled up by the polymer so the effect was probably what Don reports from that library...