Boston Globe The next menace: Mold

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The next menace: Mold

What Katrina's wind and waters haven't claimed, fungi are now

starting to devour

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff | September 12, 2005

Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2005/09/12/t

he_next_menace_mold/

When Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters poured into the Gulf Coast --

saturating walls, shoes, sofas, floors, and roofs -- billions of

dormant mold spores woke up.

For the buildings left standing by the winds and waters; for the

houses that escaped serious damage from the toxic soup of bacteria

and chemicals still sloshing in Katrina's wake, the next plague

coming, experts say, is mold.

''These are the most successful organisms on the Earth. . . . They

have this amazing ability to [survive], " said Rinaldi,

director of the Fungus Testing Laboratory and professor of pathology

and medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San

. ''Many of those houses are useless, they are going to have

to be rebuilt. "

Mold is a type of fungus that can weaken buildings, make people

sick, and streak walls and baseboards with black and green

discolorations that can be nearly impossible to scrub clean. While

debate continues over how dangerous household molds may be, people

with allergies, asthma, or weakened immune systems can suffer severe

respiratory problems when they breathe in spores. Some fungal

organisms feed on wood for their growth, leaving a gooey,

structurally unsound beam behind.

Residents in hot and humid New Orleans have long lived with the

creep of mold and fungus everywhere from bathrooms to barroom walls,

keeping it at bay with dehumidifiers, air conditioners and bleach.

But day-to-day humidity levels -- as sweaty as they make people

feel -- are not nearly as hospitable to mold growth, as the last two

weeks have been. Moisture has crept into crevices of homes, schools,

and businesses since Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29. Most

air conditioners and dehumidifiers haven't been turned on since

because of the lack of electricity. No one can reach the walls to

coat them with bleach. And the mold has kept on multiplying.

Mold had already begun to spawn in Sandy Guild's spacious Gulfport,

Miss., home when she returned to it just days after the storm. In

each spot, the mold started out gray then turned black and spread

like a weed, she said. Guild's husband is an architect and she knows

about the dangers of mold, so she and her family worked furiously to

rip out all the sheetrock and insulation on the flooded first floor

of the house, leaving only the studs. She bleached her kitchen

cabinets.

''I had to get it out, " said Guild, who owns a gift shop. ''It was

going up the walls and up the doors. I feel sorry for a lot of

people who don't even have sheetrock out [by now]; they are going to

be in trouble. "

After floods, federal agencies often urge homeowners to strip homes

of wet carpets and furniture and dry the building out within 48

hours to stop mold infestation -- but there are no guidelines for

what to do with a house that has been partly submerged for weeks.

The problem we are wrestling with is even if we eliminate the

water . . . there will still be moisture present because we don't

have air conditioning or a way to dry it out, " said

McGinnis, the director of the Medical Mycology Research Center at

the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. ''The mold will

get into the cracks in the ceiling, behind the paint. It really

creates difficulty because there is going to be lots and lots of

mold growing. "

Mold acts as nature's recycler, digesting dead or decaying material

in dark, damp places to allow new growth to take hold. In existence

for hundreds of millions of years, mold spores are among the most

resilient and common organisms on Earth.

When a mold's environment goes dry, its spores enter a kind of

hibernation, able to sometimes exist for decades in an inactive

state. These microscopic dry spores are lightweight, and wind blows

them virtually everywhere -- into homes, businesses, and schools;

onto furniture, countertops, and rugs. In dry conditions, they're

mostly invisible but can still make some people with allergies

sneeze, cough, and rub their itchy eyes.

With enough moisture, mold spores can germinate in just hours and

begin eating wood, sheetrock, wallpaper glues, and other organic

material that are in the home. Within days, a few spores can produce

millions more, which are then carried to other locations by air

currents. By the time mold is visible -- which can take from a day

to several weeks after germination -- it often has taken root in

walls and may be impossible to get out.

Companies that offer dry-out services say Gulf Coast residents and

business owners are already contacting them, but it's unclear if any

regime of drying, bleaching, and disinfecting will make the

structures salvageable.

Mark Decherd of Dryout Inc., a national company that rehabilitates

water-damaged homes, said his company has already received more than

300 calls from Gulf Coast homeowners. He said he's unsure what, if

anything, he can do for them.

Scientists worry many poor homeowners will spend tens of thousands

of dollars attempting to get rid of mold, only to find out their

efforts failed.

In Metairie, La., which was hit hard by floodwaters, mold is

beginning to spider walls -- not only where water once was, but

throughout homes.

''The mold keeps going up and up, " said Bharti Patel, who returned

to her house a week ago. ''We're just surrounded by mold. "

Marcella Bombardieri of the Globe staff contributed to this report

from Gulfport, Miss., and of the Globe staff

contributed from Metairie, La. Beth Daley can be reached by email at

bdaley@....