Area health care providers say the continued rainy weather is setting up the ideal conditions for mold to grow and as a result people who suffer from respiratory problems may suffer complications this fall.

Dr. Donald Woodmansee, section chief for allergy and immunology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon said dust mites and mold flourish in similar conditions. Both commonly trigger allergies and asthma in sensitized people and when they shut their homes up in the fall after a wet summer, problems can result, he said.

While July 1 is typically peak season for grass pollen, Woodmansee said the good news is that allergy suffers are getting a temporary respite from symptoms while the wet weather persists.

But the physician said his patients typically complain of suffering the worst symptoms in October and November and he predicts if the rainy weather pattern continues, the fall season may be more problematic than usual because it will help foster the growth of dust mites and mold.

Vinny Caruso a registered respiratory therapist at Speare Memorial Hospital in Plymouth said the rainy weather can also cause problems in people's homes. Damp dwellings can be troublesome, and not just from an architectural perspective. When moisture gets inside it can cause mold to grow, he cautioned.

"From time to time we have seen a few patients who have mold in their homes or have homes that are not as well insulated or structurally sound and moisture gets into certain areas that it shouldn't and the rain exacerbates that problem," he said.

While Caruso said the hospital sees people with asthma, emphysema, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease year-round, he said, there are apt to be up ticks in numbers in the spring and fall and when the weather changes.

And worst of all, even when the sun arrives and dries thing out, trees will release pollen that is also a triggering agent for many allergy and asthma suffers, he said.

Molds are microscopic fungi that live on plant and animal matter. They can be found almost anywhere and grow on virtually any substance when moisture is present.

The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, GA., reports molds produce tiny spores to reproduce, just as plants produce seeds. Mold spores waft through the indoor and outdoor air continually. When mold spores land on a damp spot indoors, they may begin growing and digesting whatever they are growing on in order to survive. Some molds can grow on wood, Sheetrock and even bacteria on dirty carpeting.

At All Brite Cleaning and Restoration based in Gilford, owner Rob Stewart said molds primarily thrive and become a problem when the relative humidity level is about 60 percent with temperatures between 60 and 90 degrees. Molds also tend to be more robust in poorly ventilated areas with little air movement to disrupt their growth.

Stewart said closets where people tend to tightly pack stored items including newspapers and other items in paper bags provide fertile ground for mold to sprout. In hot, humid weather, you may need to use an air conditioner or a dehumidifier or both, he counseled.

Molds most often grew in homes in moist warm areas like damp basements, closets, and bathrooms, even after the moisture has dried up. Also, molds can grow in places where fresh food is stored, refrigerator drip trays, houseplants, humidifiers, garbage pails, mattresses, upholstered furniture, or foam rubber pillows. The worst place that molds can grow, however, is inside wall cavities and flooring of homes, wherever there may be cellulose materials they can feed on, such as wood, ceiling tiles, or plasterboard, according to Stewart.

This is very common if there has been a plumbing leak or an inadequate roof. Actually, any type of water damage can cause a mold problem, Stewart said, cautioning that in homes with drop-style ceilings in basements for instance if the cold water pipes are not insulated, condensation can built up and drip onto the tiles creating an ideal unseen place for mold to grow.

"We're expecting to see a lot of call volume for the month of July because of the weather," Stewart said. Many people who own vacation cottages in the Lakes Region, he said, are just arriving and are finding mold problems when they open up their closed homes because of the persistent rain especially in crawl spaces, basements and improperly ventilated attics.

When called in to help inhibit mold grow Stewart said his company uses industrial sized dehumidifiers that can exchange the air inside a building hundreds of times an hour.

"We like to get the air back down to below 55 percent humidity. Ideally we want it about 40 percent but that's pretty hard to maintain with the weather that we've had," he lamented.

To help prevent mold growth Stewart recommends that homeowners run a dehumidifier in their basement or use some type of exhaust fan in a window to try and exchange the air. "If it's dark, moist and stagnant it is a perfect place for mold to grow," he cautioned.