Fungus Possible Culprit In Wide Range Of Illnesses

[Guest guest]

Mold Plagues Development—Fungus Possible Culprit In Wide Range Of

Illnesses

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?

BRD=1865 & dept_id=152944 & newsid=15509350 & PAG=461 & rfi=9

by Lombardi, Chronicle Correspondent November 03, 2005

Email to a friend Voice your opinion

Astoria Houses, as seen from the East River. Tenant Hines

says mold in the aging development is making residents sick. (photo

by O'Kane)

Hines, a 26-year resident of Astoria Houses, pointed at

what she calls a familiar nightmare. Splotches of black and green

mold, larger than her fingertip, covering patches of aging paint on

her bathroom wall.

Hines knelt at a spot where the floorboards showed water damage,

and sighed. " I lived years and years with this pollutant that

compromised my health and the health of my children.Then I come to

this apartment and—look, " she said, pointing again. " There. And

there. And there. "

This is her third apartment in Astoria Houses, a 54-year-old

public housing complex in western Queens. All three, she said, had

green-black mold. In the apartment before this one, Hines began to

connect the mold to her son's nosebleeds, her daughter's muscle

aches, her other son's absenteeism. And she learned quickly that she

wasn't alone.

Over the past 15 years or so, accumulated raw data from urban

centers and hospitals across the country have combined to identify

mold, that tiny, seemingly harmless fungus, as something much worse.

The National Academy of Sciences states that mold can worsen a range

of respiratory conditions, including asthma. The particular strain

in Hines' bathroom, the black-green stachybotyris chartarum, has

been cited as a possible culprit in a range of other illnesses,

including chronic fatigue and attention-deficit disorder.

The academy's report states that mold becomes a major factor when

damp conditions, particularly in older buildings, aren't addressed—

for instance,the leaks Hines has found in each of her apartments.

Now, she is beginning to teach her fellow tenants about mold—just

as the New York City Housing Authority begins a $2-billion, multi-

year rebuilding initiative throughout its 345 aging housing

complexes.

Last fall, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

issued a $600-million bond, meant explicitly to address conditions

in New York public housing. The $2-billion initiative is based on

that bond and other promised federal aid.

The first phase of the plan, to begin next year, includes new

roofs for Astoria Houses. Hines is more interested in the second

phase: deep structural repairs. Describing the repairs needed, she

echoed the academy's advice about ventilation.

Some walls need to be torn down, not just painted, she

said. " They already ordered new cabinets. Now they'll put them up on

walls that are crumbling, (in) buildings that make us sick. "

The Housing Authority doesn't appear to believe Hines, or even

think much of mold as a toxin. There is no " mold " category in its

system of tracking complaints. The closest that Housing Authority

press officer Marder could come up with was " mildew, " a

milder fungus that largely grows on fabrics and carpet.

Marder offered figures showing that fewer than a dozen people

have complained of mildew at Astoria Houses in each of the past two

years. Therefore, he concluded, " there is no mold problem in the

development. " Astoria Houses managers did not return calls for this

story.

Mold has been on the radar of public health advocates since at

least 1994,when stachybotyris chartarum was linked to a rare

pediatric bleeding disease that killed one infant, and hospitalized

a score more, in a Cleveland hospital. But some scientists, like

De of the New York City Department of Health, emphasized

that all the raw data in the world doesn't constitute scientific

proof.

" We have no causal link between mold and asthma, " said De,

citing the same National Academy of Sciences report that called mold

only an aggravating factor. He said, however,that the same report

showed mold presented a health risk for children, the elderly and

the disabled—all of whom are over-represented in public housing.

" It affects infants. It makes asthma worse. And we're learning

how pervasive it is in their lives, " said Dr. Ginger Chew of the

Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

Chew has been tracking the sources of mold, and some of its

effects, in infants and toddlers in public housing in the Bronx,

West Harlem and East Harlem. Chew, whose findings will be published

early next year, found mold " on their pillows, in their beds, on low

windowsills that are crammed shut in wintertime. " She will continue

to track these children to see if mold can be scientifically linked

to other illnesses.

As the controversy rages over mold's health effects, New

Yorkcontinues to pay a lot of attention to mold in its buildings.

Over 10,843 " mold violations " were issued last year to the city's

private building owners, according to Carol Abramson of the city's

Department of Housing, Preservation and Development. The Yellow

Pages lists two full columns of contractors trained to help make the

mandatory repairs. But Abramson's department " doesn't get involved

with public housing, " she said.

At Astoria Houses, Hines said, management consistently responded

to her mold complaints by blaming her housekeeping. " They told me to

go after it with ammonia. This is the standard for most complaints. "

" In my building, there are some (others) who have mold, " Hines

reflected. " But they haven't made the connection I have—to the

health of their families. "

In 1979, when Hines moved to Astoria Houses, " you knew if you got

into one of these developments, you had it made. " She and her husband

survived the hard 1980s and sheltered their children from the crack

epidemic—only to discover peril to their children's health, right

inside their apartment.The apartment was so full of leaks, she said,

that the walls glimmered as if they were sweating.

" The mold was coming through the wall, " said Hines' son,

, who was nine at the time. " It was on the floor—green and

black, like algae. " Hines said she and the boys would try to scrub

the mold away first; workmen would arrive about three weeks later,

scrape out the mold, and repaint.

Meanwhile, she said, everyone's health worsened.Hines found

herself with massive sinus headaches; her children's nosebleeds and

fatigue worsened. And soon she noticed, for the first time, that the

boys had problems in school. " They were having difficulty focusing. "

, now an athletic 19, said he couldn't sleep at home back

then. " The air—I couldn't breathe right. In the winter when the

radiator came on, it stunk worse. "

Finally, in June 2001, Hines took drastic action. She stopped

paying rent, so she could explain in housing court what was wrong.

After the judge ordered management to fix the leak, Hines said,

there was a knock on her door.In an effort to prove that there were

no leaks, workmen filled the drainpipe that ran down from the roof

to her kitchen.

" It flooded the apartment, " Hines laughed.

Last month, after she discovered the mold in her new apartment,

Hines thought again aboutorganizing—to try to give Astoria Houses

tenants a voice in what happens to their share of that $2 billion.

She resolved to go throughout her building with a mold survey,

and start knocking on neighbor's door. " They stole my health and

that of my children, " she said. " I'm fighting back. "