Just when you thought it was safe to go outdoors after summer allergy season, along comes winter and suddenly, you're catching one cold after another. For many allergy sufferers, winter can be relatively sneeze free, especially outdoors. But we spend most of our time indoors in the winter, and in certain climates, people who are allergic to mold may have a rough time of it. There are many different kinds of mold. All are fungi, so they reproduce by sending tiny seeds called spores into the air.
Molds like to set up shop in warm, damp, or dark environments.
In your home, which may be well sealed against the winter chill, mold often grows in damp basements, closets, window sills, bathrooms, garbage pails, refrigerators, mattresses, house plants and anywhere else that conditions are right. At your place of work, they'll grow in the same types of places. Office buildings may have ventilation or climate control systems that can be ripe for mold occupancy if the vents are not properly maintained. The story gets a little more complicated. Your allergy symptoms don't correlate to the mold itself, but to the release of spores into the air.