Monster Mold Threatens Health in the South

[Guest guest]

Monster Mold Threatens Health in the South

Tuesday September 27, 2005 8:31 PM

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5306250,00.html

By JULIA SILVERMAN and MARILYNN MARCHIONE

Associated Press Writers

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Wearing goggles, gloves, galoshes and a mask,

Randazzo lasted only 10 minutes inside her home in St.

Bernard Parish. Her eyes burned, her mouth filled with a salty taste

and she felt nauseous. Her 26-year-old daughter, , also

covered in gear, came out coughing.

``That mold,'' she said. ``It smells like death.''

Mold now forms an interior version of kudzu in the soggy South,

posing health dangers that will make many homes tear-downs and will

force schools and hospitals to do expensive repairs.

It's a problem that any homeowner who has ever had a flooded

basement or a leaky roof has faced. But the magnitude of this

problem leaves many storm victims prey to unscrupulous or

incompetent remediators. Home test kits for mold, for example, are

worthless, experts say.

Don't expect help from insurance companies, either. Most policies

were revised in the last decade to exclude mold damage because of

``sick building'' lawsuits alleging illnesses. Although mold's

danger to those with asthma or allergies is real, there's little or

no science behind other claims, and a lot of hype.

``We went through a period when people were really irrational about

the threat posed by the mere sight of mold in their homes,'' said

Money, a mold expert from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio,

and author of ``Carpet Monsters and Killer Spores,'' a book about

mold.

``If you give me 10 minutes in anybody's home, I'll find mold growth

somewhere,'' he said.

Mold is everywhere. Most people have no problem living with this

ubiquitous fungus. It reproduces by making spores, which travel

unseen through the air and grow on any moist surface, usually

destroying it as the creeping crud grows.

Mold can't be eliminated but can be controlled by limiting moisture,

which is exactly what couldn't be done after Hurricane Katrina.

Standing water created ideal growth conditions and allowed mold to

penetrate so deep that experts fear that even studs of many homes

are saturated and unsalvageable.

In fact, New Orleans is where mold's health risks were first

recognized.

A Louisiana State University allergist, the late Dr. Salvaggio,

described at medical meetings in the 1970s what he called ``New

Orleans asthma,'' an illness that filled hospital emergency rooms

each fall with people who couldn't breathe. He linked it to high

levels of mold spores that appeared in the humid, late summer

months.

``These are potent allergens,'' but only for people who have mold

allergies, said Dr. Jordan Fink, a Medical College of Wisconsin

professor and past president of the American Academy of Allergy,

Asthma and Immunology.

Molds produce irritants that can provoke coughing, and some make

spores that contain toxins, which further irritate airways.

``The real pariah is this thing called Stachybotrys chartarum. This

organism produces a greater variety of toxins and in greater

concentrations than any other mold that's been studied,'' Money

said.

Doctors at Cleveland's Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital blamed

it for a cluster of cases of pulmonary hemorrhage, or bleeding into

the lungs, that killed several children in the 1990s, but the link

was never proved.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is

no firm evidence linking mold to the lung problem, memory loss or

other alleged woes beyond asthma and allergy. However, the sheer

amount of it in the South could trigger problems for some people who

haven't had them before, medical experts said.

``The child who didn't have a significant problem before may be in a

much different scenario now,'' said Dr. Wasserman, a

pediatrician at Ochsner Clinic in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie

whose office and home were flooded and are now covered in mold. He

plans to tear down his house.

Even dead mold can provoke asthma in susceptible people, meaning

that places open to the public - restaurants, schools, businesses -

must eliminate it.

This is most true for hospitals, where mold spores can cause deadly

lung diseases in people with weak immune systems or organ

transplants. Such concerns already led Charity Hospital's owners to

mothball it.

Tulane University Hospital and Clinic's cleanup is expected to take

months.

``The first floor's got pretty much mold. It's going to be pretty

much a total loss,'' said Ron Chatagnier, project coordinator for

C & B Services, a Texas company hired by the hospital's owner, HCA.

``It might be difficult or impossible to reopen some of these

medical centers,'' said Joe Cappiello, an official with the Joint

Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

``It's not just the physical destruction that you see,'' but

ventilation systems and ductwork full of mold, ready ``to seed the

rest of the hospital with spores'' if the heat or air conditioning

were turned on, he said.

As for houses, ``anything that's been submerged probably will be a

tear-down,'' said May, a Boston-area building inspector,

chemist and book author who has investigated thousands of buildings

for mold problems.

Clothes can be washed or dry cleaned, but most furniture is a loss.

Ditto for carpeting, insulation, wallpaper and drywall, which no

longer lives up to its name. Mattresses that didn't get wet probably

have mold if they were in a room that did.

``Anything with a cushion you can forget about,'' May said.

The general advice is the same as when food is suspected of being

spoiled: when in doubt, throw it out.

When is professional help needed?

``It's simply a matter of extent. If you've got small areas of mold,

just a few square feet, it's something a homeowner can clean with 10

percent bleach,'' said Anu Dixit, a fungus expert at Saint Louis

University.

She studied mold after the Mississippi River floods in 1993 and

1994, and found cleaning measures often were ineffective, mainly

because people started rebuilding too soon, before the surrounding

area was completely dry.

In the New Orleans suburb of Lakeview, Toby Roesler found a water

line 7 feet high on his home and mold growing in large black and

white colonies from every wall and ceiling on the first floor.

Wearing goggles, a mask and rubber gloves, he sprayed down the

stairwell with a bleach solution. A crew will arrive soon to gut the

lower floor.

``I think it's salvageable,'' he said, but admitted, ``It's going to

be some gross work to get it ready.''

Others won't try.

Dionne Thiel, who lives next door to the Randazzo family, was only 7

when Hurricane Betsy raced through her neighborhood 40 years ago.

Returning on Monday, after Hurricane Katrina, something was

instantly familiar.

``The mold and the water,'' she said. ``It's the exact same smell.''

Mold covered her dining room walls, snaked up doorframes and even

found its way into the candles she sold for a living. She and her

husband salvaged his golf clubs but left the rest. They'll move to

Arizona.

``I would never want to live here again,'' said her husband, Don

Thiel. ``It's not going to be safe.''

---

Associated Press writers Silverman and G. Breed

contributed reporting for this story from Louisiana; Medical Writer

Marilynn Marchione reported from Milwaukee.

[Guest guest]

It's a real shame that the media continues wasting paper and ink on

this crap and propaganda that they insist on distributing to the

consumer. Like we haven't heard it enough. There are more cases

proving that mold causes many illnesses than any other disease that

I know.

The only expert that I can believe without a doubt in this article

is Jeff May. Jeff, thank you for standing your ground. Myself and

probably many others on this board have the utmost respect for you

and your credibility speaks for itself. I apologize that I missed

you in Boston at the teachers conference, I didn't recognize you

with the hat on and I found out after the fact that you were there.

I guess they are right about one thing in this article it is like

Kudzu, it destroys everything and there is no stopping it, just like

some of this garbage.

KC

--- In , " tigerpaw2c " <tigerpaw2c@y...>

wrote:

> Monster Mold Threatens Health in the South

>

> Tuesday September 27, 2005 8:31 PM

> http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5306250,00.html

>

>

> By JULIA SILVERMAN and MARILYNN MARCHIONE

>

> Associated Press Writers

>

> NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Wearing goggles, gloves, galoshes and a mask,

> Randazzo lasted only 10 minutes inside her home in St.

> Bernard Parish. Her eyes burned, her mouth filled with a salty

taste

> and she felt nauseous. Her 26-year-old daughter, , also

> covered in gear, came out coughing.

>

> ``That mold,'' she said. ``It smells like death.''

>

> Mold now forms an interior version of kudzu in the soggy South,

> posing health dangers that will make many homes tear-downs and

will

> force schools and hospitals to do expensive repairs.

>

> It's a problem that any homeowner who has ever had a flooded

> basement or a leaky roof has faced. But the magnitude of this

> problem leaves many storm victims prey to unscrupulous or

> incompetent remediators. Home test kits for mold, for example, are

> worthless, experts say.

>

> Don't expect help from insurance companies, either. Most policies

> were revised in the last decade to exclude mold damage because of

> ``sick building'' lawsuits alleging illnesses. Although mold's

> danger to those with asthma or allergies is real, there's little

or

> no science behind other claims, and a lot of hype.

>

> ``We went through a period when people were really irrational

about

> the threat posed by the mere sight of mold in their homes,'' said

> Money, a mold expert from Miami University in Oxford,

Ohio,

> and author of ``Carpet Monsters and Killer Spores,'' a book about

> mold.

>

> ``If you give me 10 minutes in anybody's home, I'll find mold

growth

> somewhere,'' he said.

>

> Mold is everywhere. Most people have no problem living with this

> ubiquitous fungus. It reproduces by making spores, which travel

> unseen through the air and grow on any moist surface, usually

> destroying it as the creeping crud grows.

>

> Mold can't be eliminated but can be controlled by limiting

moisture,

> which is exactly what couldn't be done after Hurricane Katrina.

> Standing water created ideal growth conditions and allowed mold to

> penetrate so deep that experts fear that even studs of many homes

> are saturated and unsalvageable.

>

> In fact, New Orleans is where mold's health risks were first

> recognized.

>

> A Louisiana State University allergist, the late Dr.

Salvaggio,

> described at medical meetings in the 1970s what he called ``New

> Orleans asthma,'' an illness that filled hospital emergency rooms

> each fall with people who couldn't breathe. He linked it to high

> levels of mold spores that appeared in the humid, late summer

> months.

>

> ``These are potent allergens,'' but only for people who have mold

> allergies, said Dr. Jordan Fink, a Medical College of Wisconsin

> professor and past president of the American Academy of Allergy,

> Asthma and Immunology.

>

> Molds produce irritants that can provoke coughing, and some make

> spores that contain toxins, which further irritate airways.

>

> ``The real pariah is this thing called Stachybotrys chartarum.

This

> organism produces a greater variety of toxins and in greater

> concentrations than any other mold that's been studied,'' Money

> said.

>

> Doctors at Cleveland's Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital blamed

> it for a cluster of cases of pulmonary hemorrhage, or bleeding

into

> the lungs, that killed several children in the 1990s, but the link

> was never proved.

>

> The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there

is

> no firm evidence linking mold to the lung problem, memory loss or

> other alleged woes beyond asthma and allergy. However, the sheer

> amount of it in the South could trigger problems for some people

who

> haven't had them before, medical experts said.

>

> ``The child who didn't have a significant problem before may be in

a

> much different scenario now,'' said Dr. Wasserman, a

> pediatrician at Ochsner Clinic in the New Orleans suburb of

Metairie

> whose office and home were flooded and are now covered in mold. He

> plans to tear down his house.

>

> Even dead mold can provoke asthma in susceptible people, meaning

> that places open to the public - restaurants, schools, businesses -

> must eliminate it.

>

> This is most true for hospitals, where mold spores can cause

deadly

> lung diseases in people with weak immune systems or organ

> transplants. Such concerns already led Charity Hospital's owners

to

> mothball it.

>

> Tulane University Hospital and Clinic's cleanup is expected to

take

> months.

>

> ``The first floor's got pretty much mold. It's going to be pretty

> much a total loss,'' said Ron Chatagnier, project coordinator for

> C & B Services, a Texas company hired by the hospital's owner, HCA.

>

> ``It might be difficult or impossible to reopen some of these

> medical centers,'' said Joe Cappiello, an official with the Joint

> Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

>

> ``It's not just the physical destruction that you see,'' but

> ventilation systems and ductwork full of mold, ready ``to seed the

> rest of the hospital with spores'' if the heat or air conditioning

> were turned on, he said.

>

> As for houses, ``anything that's been submerged probably will be a

> tear-down,'' said May, a Boston-area building inspector,

> chemist and book author who has investigated thousands of

buildings

> for mold problems.

>

> Clothes can be washed or dry cleaned, but most furniture is a

loss.

> Ditto for carpeting, insulation, wallpaper and drywall, which no

> longer lives up to its name. Mattresses that didn't get wet

probably

> have mold if they were in a room that did.

>

> ``Anything with a cushion you can forget about,'' May said.

>

> The general advice is the same as when food is suspected of being

> spoiled: when in doubt, throw it out.

>

> When is professional help needed?

>

> ``It's simply a matter of extent. If you've got small areas of

mold,

> just a few square feet, it's something a homeowner can clean with

10

> percent bleach,'' said Anu Dixit, a fungus expert at Saint Louis

> University.

>

> She studied mold after the Mississippi River floods in 1993 and

> 1994, and found cleaning measures often were ineffective, mainly

> because people started rebuilding too soon, before the surrounding

> area was completely dry.

>

> In the New Orleans suburb of Lakeview, Toby Roesler found a water

> line 7 feet high on his home and mold growing in large black and

> white colonies from every wall and ceiling on the first floor.

>

> Wearing goggles, a mask and rubber gloves, he sprayed down the

> stairwell with a bleach solution. A crew will arrive soon to gut

the

> lower floor.

>

> ``I think it's salvageable,'' he said, but admitted, ``It's going

to

> be some gross work to get it ready.''

>

> Others won't try.

>

> Dionne Thiel, who lives next door to the Randazzo family, was only

7

> when Hurricane Betsy raced through her neighborhood 40 years ago.

> Returning on Monday, after Hurricane Katrina, something was

> instantly familiar.

>

> ``The mold and the water,'' she said. ``It's the exact same

smell.''

>

> Mold covered her dining room walls, snaked up doorframes and even

> found its way into the candles she sold for a living. She and her

> husband salvaged his golf clubs but left the rest. They'll move to

> Arizona.

>

> ``I would never want to live here again,'' said her husband, Don

> Thiel. ``It's not going to be safe.''

>

> ---

>

> Associated Press writers Silverman and G. Breed

> contributed reporting for this story from Louisiana; Medical

Writer

> Marilynn Marchione reported from Milwaukee.