Re: Patients Hail Oblivious Doctor breakthrough

[Guest guest]

Previously, doctors and researchers refused to listen to Mold Victims

and blamed their complaints on air pollutants like dust mites, pollen

or animal hair.

But the scientists, based at Manchesters Wythenshawe Hospital believe

they have found something new, when they actually have been culpable

of spectacular ignorance.

Their research shows that the condition exactly matches the

descriptions of Mold sufferers - who outnumber researchers by more

than a thousand to one and yet are invisible to the researchers eyes.

-

[Guest guest]

Funny how we still haven't had much success getting doctors to

listen until they suddenly " discover " something and inform us poor

ignorant fools. -

From: " bherk " <bherk@...>

Date: Tue Mar 20, 2001 7:40 pm

Subject: Effects of Meteorological Conditions on Spore Plumes

bherk@...

(I am SO glad that someone has actually conducted research on this.

I have been saying this, has been saying this and many others

of you have noticed this as well. While we don't have the equipment

to scientifically validate our impressions, we all seem to notice

our symptomology increase - pain, brain fog, headache, etc. - in the

hours preceding a major weather shift, specifically an impending

thunderstorm. Since our impressions have been validated, perhaps we

could work on methods to help reduce our exposure when these plumes

become active.)

1033 Effects of Meteorological Conditions on Spore Plumes

Micah M Burch

Estelle Levetin

University of Tulsa,

Tulsa, OK

Fungal spores are an ever-present component of the atmosphere, and

have long

been known to trigger asthma and hay fever symptoms in sensitive

individuals. The atmosphere around Tulsa has been monitored for

airborne

spores and pollen with Burkard Spore Traps. The main sampling

station is on

the roof of a building at the University of Tulsa, and two additional

samplers are located south of Tulsa at Mesonet meteorological

stations. One

of these stations is located in an agricultural field, and the other

is

located in a pasture. During routine analysis of Burkard slides for

airborne

spores, some days were found which exhibited exceptionally high spore

concentrations with average daily concentrations above 50,000

spores/m3 of

air. This study involved the examination of the hourly spore

concentrations

for three days which have very high spore concentrations. The spore

concentrations from these three days from each of the sampling

stations were

analyzed using the 12-traverse method. The hourly concentrations of

Cladosporium, Alternaria, Epicoccum, Curvularia, Pithomyces,

Drechslera,

smut spores, ascospores, basidiospores, other, and total spores were

determined and then correlated with meteorological data including

temperature, rainfall, wind speed, dew point, air pressure, and wind

direction. At every site each of these days exhibited a phenomenon

in which

spore concentrations increased dramatically over a very short period

of

time, and we called this phenomenon a spore plume. Spore plumes for

these

days occurred around midday, and spore concentrations were seen to

increase

from lows around 20,000 total spores/m3 of air to highs over 170,000

total

spore/m3 of air in two hours. Although the diurnal rhythm for spore

release

also reaches its peak for total spores near midday, spore plumes

exhibit

total concentrations up to ten times higher than those found in a

normal

diurnal rhythm. Multiple regression analysis of the data indicated

that

increases in temperature, wind speed, dew point, and air pressure

correlated

with the sudden increase in total spore concentrations, but no single

weather variable predicted the appearance of a spore plume. The

proper

combination of changes in these meteorological parameters that

result in a

spore plume may be due to the changing weather conditions associated

with

thunderstorms, as each of the three days exhibiting spore plumes

near midday

experienced thunderstorms later that evening. It is believed that

spore

plumes can occur in a wide variety of areas, and are not confined to

the air

around Tulsa. Days exhibiting spore plumes or extremely high spore

concentrations such as the ones in this study may have an important

clinical

significance, because other studies have shown that sensitization to

certain

spore types can occur during exposure to high spore concentrations.

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