Re: Clearance testing / Carl

[Guest guest]

, you are so aware of where the mold plumes are and are not. Do you think the rest of us can become this aware or is this due to your supersensitivity which others of us MAY not have?

a

Carl, you seem to be one of the few people on IAQ who "gets it".The cases of hypersensitivity you are dealing with are going to haveto learn that they cannot rely on objective testing to determine if aplace is safe for them.I located a spore plume in Dr Marinkovich's office that went squarelyacross the middle of the room and through the receptionists window.I could sit safely on either side of it but couldn't be directly inthe plume. Spore plumes swirl through an area just like cigarette smoke.One step to either side and you can miss it.The only way IAQ people are going to avoid endless arguments withhypersensitive people is to agree that you can only guarantee the areathat is mutually agreed upon for remediation up to a level that a"normal" person can tolerate.If you remove the containment around the agreed upon area, even if itis the entire house, and the spore counts go up, it's coming fromsomewhere else and there may be nothing you can do about it.I was driven out of a house by a spore plume that wasn't even on theproperty. You are going to see a lot of this.Unless you have a mutual understanding that there can be colonies hidden below cement slabs, or in community sewer systems, or in aneighbors house that can still drive a hypersensitive person to anunacceptable inflammatory response, there will be no understanding ofthe success or failure of remediation.-

[Guest guest]

> , you are so aware of where the mold plumes are and are not. Do

you think the rest of us can become this aware or is this due to your

supersensitivity which others of us MAY not have?

> a

Dr Marinkovich told me " I've seen many people with your level of

sensitivity but no others who have trained themselves to detect it so

precisely " . That's what I did. I got a sample of mold and trained

myself to recognize it. Yes I have taught other sensitive people to

do this too. No, this probably won't work for people who aren't

already sensitive, but for them it hasn't become a critical factor in

their well being.

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[Guest guest]

Good God! Don't sniff mold!

I took an extremely small sample and wrapped it up in a Hepa filter

that I cut from a vacuum cleaner bag. Then I put it under six layers

of blankets. I waited to see how long before I got a response.

It was a little over three hours.

But we're talking incredibly small amounts that I only approached

gradually.

I'm talking about exploring the mycotoxin effect.

You sure don't want to inhale mold.

I can't advise anybody else to do this and I want to make it perfectly

clear that YOU MUST NEVER DELIBERATELY INHALE SPORES.

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[Guest guest]

Wow! Carl, we're doing the same thing.

I've been frustrated when people ask me to " just point at the mold and

get it out of my life so I can go on " and I have to tell them that

this would be useless.

They must learn to assess their own response and " comfort level " and

act accordingly. Living with this type of sensitivity means that no

one can do it for you, (unless you are living with them full time as

you say).

I used to be a hang glider instructor and we would run into the same

problem with students who didn't want to learn to assess appropriate

flying conditions and that just " ain't gonna fly " .

That's not much good when you're in a situation without an experienced

person to show you the way.

To answer " what is a spore plume " .

Mold colonies send off a cloud of microscopic spores when disturbed.

Think of these " plumes " of spores acting exactly like cigarette smoke.

You can stand right next to a colony that isn't disturbed and have

times when you feel nothing.

Or when it is windy you can be hundreds of feet away from a colony and

if it is blowing a plume toward you, your life will be hell.

-

[Guest guest]

Ritchie Shoemaker calls a response that lasts more than a few hours a

" mold slam " . The lesser ones are just " hits " .

When I first started a concerted mycotoxin avoidance strategy in 1998,

" mold slams " would make me sick for 3 or 4 days. Now my tolerance is

up to a level in which even the very worst places have been reduced to

" hits " . I am never sick for more than an hour now. I'm even working

full time in a building where I formerly couldn't stand momentary

exposure. Though as I described to a when we were at the

Peppermill across the street from the Park Lane mall, if the Park

Lane plume blows toward me I have to leave the area.

-

[Guest guest]

> It surprises me to find that shortly after a hit of some magnitude..that

> a hot shower

> can reduce its effect. My MCS is always reacting to some exposure...so I

> rush to

> the shower and get relieved a whole lot. I have no idea why this works !

> Ruth

It's because you just decontaminated mold spores.

I can't tell you how many people describe this to me and say that it

is due to some additive they put in a bath or some " steam " effect from

hot water. Nope. It's just physical removal of spores.

Try a cold shower - it works just the same.

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