Living or working in rental units that contain elevated levels of airborne mold spores and/or substantial mold growth infestation can cause very severe (and sometimes permanent) health problems to tenants.

Landlords have ethical and legal obligations to tenants to provide an environmentally safe, habitable living space (residential rentals) or workplace (office and commercial rentals). Those obligations go unmet when a rental unit is mold-infested.

Landlords may have potential and substantial legal liability to tenants for such compensatory damages as: expenses for medical mold diagnostic and treatment procedures, loss of earnings, mold damage to tenants' clothing and personal property, higher rent differential if tenants need to move to a mold-safe place, moving expenses, any tenant-paid expenses (such as mold inspection, testing, and remediation of rental unit and tenant possessions), and punitive damages (jury-awarded).

A Hayward, California, jury in 2004 awarded $4 million dollars in damages because of mold infestation and other substandard living conditions on behalf of 124 past and present tenants of an apartment building whose owner failed to do proper mold remediation and maintenance of mold-infested apartments. Take these ten steps for mutual well-being of both landlord and tenants---

1. A property owner or manager should not even offer property for rent until after a thorough mold inspection and mold testing of entire rental building or of individual rental units (prior to rental) determines that property is mold-safe for tenants to live or work in.

2. Hire a Certified Mold Inspector (USA and Canada) for an annual property mold inspection and mold testing, or at least use a do-it-yourself mold inspection checklist and mold test kits for a thorough mold examination and evaluation of rental building.

3. If there has been a plumbing line break or leak, roof or siding leaks, flooding, storm damage, or other water intrusion problems, building should be thoroughly and promptly mold inspected, tested, and remediated as part of water damage repairs and restoration.

The reason for trip was to volunteer in rehabilitation of vervet monkey, indigenous to SA. This small, black faced, green skinned primate is one of such “problem animals” who are disregarded by authorities, despite fact that it is listed as endangered.

I had no clue what a vervet was or aware of vermin tag and what it meant when I had arrived. Rehabilitating vervet was one of possible rabbits picked out of hat, my aim was purely volunteering and to see if I could make a difference.

Killing for food, for survival or even to protect your livelihood would be natural. This would seem to be a valid reason, but what if information available portrays a distorted and inaccurate image. Coupled with typical view that comes with this classification, could other motives be involved or just making an opportunity from it? Consider Matapatcha affair. It is an organisation that deals in supply of monkeys to labs. One of their clients is one that conducted activities within a government owned nature reserve. Despite if there is or not a connection, there are organisations who will with no ethics exploit these animals for their own personal gain. Or even to justify killing of them.