Boston Globe: The next menace: Mold

[Guest guest]

Below please find a story that appeared on the front page of the Health

Section of the Boston Globe on Monday, September 12, 2005. 

PLEASE PLEASE. I URGE you, after you read the story to use this link:  

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2005/09/12/the_next_menace_mold/

to access the story.  Part way down on the story is a link to clink onto to

tell your story about how mold harmed you, your family or coworkers.  If we

slam them with stories, maybe this will help.  The horrors of Hurricane Katrina

have also left our fellow Americans' homes and places of business contaminated

with mold.  We have people's ears now, please take advantage of it.  Let them

see that this has been a problem for others, long before this devastating

hurricane.  They have to own up to it being a problem in the Gulf so they have

to

own up to it being a problem for you too.

Mulvey son

THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING

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

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

walls, shoes, sofas, floors, and roofs -- billions of dormant mold spores

woke up.

Now, fueled by moisture and temperature, those spores are growing furiously.

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@....  

© Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company