Mold Biology And Mold Related Heath Issues

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Mold Biology And Mold Related Heath Issues

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Questions about mold biology and mold related health issues

or toxic mold and black mold problems? Need an indoor air

quality or IAQ testing information because of sick building

syndrome, building related illness, or toxic black mold?

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Distribution Date and Time: 2009-12-15 10:00:00

Written By: Daryl Watters

Copyright: 2009

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Mold Biology And Mold Related Heath Issues

Copyright © 2009 Daryl Watters

A Accredited Mold Inspection Service, Inc.

http://www.floridamoldinspectors.us/

BASIC MOLD BIOLOGY:

Fungi share some basic similarities with plants and bacteria but

are not plants nor are they bacteria. They are in their own

kingdom, the Fungi Kingdom.

The terms mold and mildew are often used interchangeably by lay

persons, but according to some more specific definitions, mildew

is a powdery growth that attacks and grows on living plants while

molds are often fuzzy and grow on all sorts of moist surfaces.

For some people the term mildew is used to describe powdery

fungal growth that grows on personal belongings and can be easily

wiped off. Molds, mildews, and other fungi usually reproduce by

forming and releasing spores into the air. Most indoor spores are

just 3 to 15 microns across, some spores are a few hundred

microns long but these are still just a few microns across. The

human eye can at best see objects that are 10 or more microns

across. Toxins known as mycotoxins and also allergens are found

primarily in the spores of various molds. These substances can be

found in live or dead spores.

TOXIC MOLDS

Mycotoxins are chemicals that are sometimes produced by various

species of toxic mold. These toxins are real and are powerful

weapons used by toxic molds in a sort of microbial warfare to

help them compete against bacteria and other molds. Various molds

including but not limited to toxic black mold also known as

Stachybotrys or toxic mold are common in Florida, but mold spores

in residential settings, even if they are potentially toxic

producing types and at high levels, are not automatically at high

enough levels to result in toxic effects on humans via

inhalation. It takes a lot of inhaled spores to poison a person.

Currently, disagreement exists as to if residential mold spore

exposures levels are ever high enough to result in toxic effect

on humans. Toxic effects of mold mycotoxins in humans and farm

animals leading to serious illness and even death via accidental

ingestion of toxic mold, etc. have been well documented in

scientific literature. Effects of heavy exposure to mold toxins

are many, but just two of the more common effects are immuno

suppression and liver cancer. Mycotoxins are believed to result

in headaches, sore throats, hair loss, flu symptoms, diarrhea,

fatigue, dermatitis, general malaise (tiredness) and

psychological depression. " (Croft et al, 1986, Jarvis, 1995).

" Other reported responses to mycotoxin exposure includes skin

rashes, lesions of the skin and gastrointestinal tract, and

interference with blood cell formation. " (Sorenson 1993).

Human and horse exposure to Stachybotrys mold infested hay that

caused toxic reactions in the Ukraine around the 1920's or the

1930's is well documented. Industrial level exposures of

mycotoxins such as at peanut processing facilities, composting

facilities, or farms has caused documented toxigenic and severe

allergenic problems. Countless farm animals have died as a result

of eating food contaminated with toxic molds, in one extreme

example that occurred in the mid 1960's 100,000 turkeys died in

England after consuming moldy food shipped from Brazil. The

causative agent was aflotoxin from Aspergillus flavus mold. In

several such cases of human and animal exposure mycotoxin

poisoning is well documented by scientists and doctors. For more

information on documented cases and on mycotoxocosis refer to The

Fifth Kingdom, by Brice Kindrick or Bioaerosols from ACGIH by

Harriett Burge.

It is very important to not panic but to keep in mind that to

accomplish the above serious detrimental effects, toxic molds

like Stachybotrys and others may have to be either:

1. Consumed in mold contaminated foods,

2. Physically handled so that excessive physical contact is made

between human skin and the mold, or

3. The mycotoxins have to be exposed to living cells in the

laboratory.

Various studies have shown that the levels of mycotoxins

encountered by breathing mold spores in your home or office

appear to be far too low to cause toxic reactions in humans. Of

course future studies may or may not change this current opinion

held by many researches. Synergistic effects of various indoor

pollutants and different mycotoxins mixing together may be more

powerful than individual mycotoxin exposures. Fortunately

scientists are not in the business of performing full fledged

toxicity studies on human subjects.

However, asthma attacks, allergies, and sinus infections from

mold appear to be very common and can give you just as much

trouble as if you were being poisoned.

INFECTIOUS MOLDS

According to a Mayo clinic study, sinusitis caused by growth of

fungus fibers or balls of fungus fibers in the sinus cavities is

not unusual. This is typically caused by common Aspergillus,

Fusarium, and Curvularia species. Aspergillosis caused by the

growth of aspergillus species in the lungs most commonly

A.fumigatus, A. flavus, A. Niger and A. territus species

typically occurs in persons with compromised immune systems or a

history of lung disease that resulted in past lung damage. Common

Candida albicans that causes yeast infections is a major cause of

serious nosocomial (hospital acquired) fungal infections.

Histoplasma capsulatium and Cryptococcus neoformans are very

dangerous yeast like molds that should be assumed to be present

in any bird droppings but are primarily a concern when spread to

humans via inhalation of particles from accumulations of pigeon,

starling, and bat droppings. Coccidioides immitis mold spores are

spread from dusty soil in the southwestern United States, it

sometimes causes valley fever but at other times the same fungus

can be deadly. Nearly any fungi can cause infections in persons

with severely compromised immune systems.

Detection of infectious fungi such as but not limited to the

above listed ones and identification of fungi to determine the

species is not part of most mold inspections.

ALLERGY ASTHMA AND HYPERSENSITIVITY DISEASES

An allergic reaction occurs when your body's immune system

mistakes harmless proteins in mold spores or other allergens as

if these proteins were harmful microbes trying to infect your

body. Your body's immune system, feeling threatened releases

histamines into the blood stream and these histamines are what

actually causes coughing, sneeze, and watering of the eyes. Other

person's immune systems will not mistake proteins in mold spores

as a microbial threat, and thus not develop allergic reactions.

Asthma is a condition where the small air sack like structures in

the lungs called alveoli can contract and exhale air, but cannot

properly expand to bring in new air. Molds as well as other

substances are common triggers of asthma. Mold-related allergenic

and asthmatic conditions in homes are very common and very

serious and should be addressed and not ignored. Many serious

hypersensitivity diseases in humans, such as baker's lung, wood

workers lung and others are the result of exposures to molds by

persons working in industries that result in long term exposure

to elevated spore levels.

Hypersensitivity diseases have long been well documented in

science and the medical field. According to Bioaerosols

assessment and control hypersensitivity pneumonitis is a

hypersensitivity disease that results from the long term repeated

exposure to elevated mold spore levels or other antigens, this

condition can occur at in industry or agriculture where spore

levels are high, it may also occur in moldy offices or homes, it

produces pneumonia like symptoms with fever, cough, tightness of

chest, lung infiltrates, and difficulty breathing. Once

sensitized, individuals may react to extremely low, often un

measurable, concentrations of antigenic materials.

Organic dust toxic syndrome is a flu like illness that results

from a short term exposure to very high levels of spores, such as

the levels that may be encountered by workers doing large mold

remediation jobs without wearing protective respirators. Symptoms

show up several hours or a day or so after exposure and symptoms

go away after a day or a few days. Building related illness is a

term used to describe an illness such as one of the above that

results from time spent in a building around molds or other

allergens, irritants, or toxins, and sick building syndrome is

used to describe a building related illness whose specific cause

remains a mystery.

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Daryl Watters is a certified mold inspector, certified home

inspector, and certified indoor environmentalist providing

building inspections, mold testing and indoor air quality

testing from Vero Beach to the Florida Keys. For mold and air

quality testing information: http://www.floridamoldinspectors.us/

http://www.florida-mold-inspection.com/