'Toxic mold' is a myth, claims local allergy specialist

[Guest guest]

'Toxic mold' is a myth, claims local allergy specialist

Lodi News-Sentinel - Lodi,CA*

By Dyer

News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Last updated: Saturday, June 30, 2007 5:38 AM PDT

http://www.lodinews.com/articles/2007/06/30/news/4_mold_qna_070630.tx

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After studying at s Hopkins University, Dr. Jerold J. Yecies has

spent more than 30 years treating patients with allergies in the

Lodi and Stockton areas.

Yecies said that while so-called " toxic " mold was controversial 10

to 15 years ago, most doctors now have agreed that there are no

known allergies to black or toxic mold.

In the wake of the Tokay High School's recent mold discoveries

Yecies sat down with reporter Dyer to talk about some of the

health effects of mold and the myth of " toxic " mold.

Q: What are some reactions people have to molds?

A: There's a big difference between patients allergic to mold and

toxic mold.

Toxic mold is black and it looks terrible, but there's never been

shown ... (to be a) specific allergic reaction to toxic mold.

People do get what they call hypersensitivity reactions, which means

they can have (reactions), just like you're sensitive to any

irritant — sneezy, stuffy, headache, cough.

Q: Why is it called " toxic, " then?

A: It's really a misnomer. What they're proposing is that it's not

toxic. It's really what they call " damp building syndrome. " ...

The main damage is if they don't fix this mold problem, be it in a

home or a school, it's sort of like a dry rot. It keeps spreading

and it will do damage to the structure.

Q: So, you can only get sick from mold if you're allergic to it?

A: If your allergic to it. We can do allergy tests for the various

molds in this area, which we do. And people do have mold induced

asthma, nasal and sinus problems, which we can document.

But this " toxic mold " is more of an irritant. You've maybe been into

areas that smell musty or damp. They irritate you. You may start to

cough, maybe sneezy, stuffy, congested, whatever. So, you leave

because you feel better when you're away from it. But there's no

actual scientific way to prove that.

It's more of an irritant type, or what we call a hypersensitivity.

Just like you would be to perfume smell or any strong irritant.

Q: If you're allergic to mold, not necessarily black mold, what are

the range of symptoms you can have from the most benign to the most

severe?

A: You can have nasal stuffiness, congestion. The most severe would

be significant and severe asthma. You can also, not from the toxic

mold, but from mold spores, you can get a hypersensitivity lung

disease, which is seen in some farmers. And that gives you an

asthma, pneumonia type picture. Patients can be pretty sick with

that.

Q: If someone is exposed to mold or fears that they have allergies

to it, what should they do?

A: Well first, with any type of allergy you try to avoid what you're

allergic to. In other words, if you have mold in the house or a

leak, you try to clean it up.

If mold is outside — and, of course if you go outside you can't

avoid that it's in the air — obviously you breathe it in.

We would then treat the patient that is allergic to the mold, that

is determined by the various allergy tests, with medication. Not to

help specifically the mold, but to help the symptoms.

If that does not work or work well enough, then you can desensitize

or make someone less allergic to airborne mold by immunization or so-

called allergy shots.

Q: What are some of the most common molds?

A: The ones that are common are alternaria, cladosporium and there

are several others that are known to cause allergic reactions. In

addition, you may have stachybotrys that doesn't cause (allergic

reactions).

But patients don't care. If they're in an area where they're having

trouble, or have increased symptoms they, frankly, don't care what

type of mold it is. They want to be removed from that environment or

treated. Both actually.

Q: Is this a good area for mold or a bad area?

A: The mold counts for the valley here are higher in the winter. But

they're not as high as they would be in, say, Santa Cruz or along

the coast, where it's damp and foggy and misty most of the year.

So, the mold counts over there are much higher and last much longer

than they do in the valley.

Q: What are the oddest things that you've seen people be allergic to?

A: A patient can be allergic to anything, and I've learned not to

discount what a patient says. Certainly peanuts, eggs, fish, shrimp

are the more common allergens.

There are single allergens. We've had patients have reactions to ...

one the other day was carrot. It's a very common, easily innocuous

vegetable, but, yes, they definitely were allergic to a carrot.

Contact reporter Dyer at amandad@....