Panic First Investigate Later by Renata Zilch

[Guest guest]

Skeptics Report

Panic First, Investigate Later

Renata Zilch

November, 2002

" So there will be jobs for mold experts, mold removal companies, and mold

attorneys- and me for a long time to come. "

Have you been following the news? Toxic mold is going to get you! Like the

alien in " Blob " it grows and consumes everything around you. It causes brain

tumors, impaired memory and runny noses. It hides in your carpet, and in the

walls of your children's bedrooms. It grows on your cheese and it will poison

your puppy. It is a plague from Biblical times, and it has made a recent

return appearance to a building near you.

What is mold?

There are more than 100,000 identified species of mold in our ecosystem.

About 100 species have been linked to causing adverse reaction in humans. Mold

spreads to new areas by releasing spores. For the purposes of this discussion,

we are going to focus on the " toxic mold " , Stachybotrys.

Stachybotrys chartarum (also known by its synonym Stachybotrys atra) or, as

we affectionately call it in the industry, " Stachy " is a shiny, slimy black

mold with a green sheen. It tends to grow on cellulose products such as wood,

drywall or paper and needs a constant source of water to survive. Growth can

occur within 24-48 of exposure to a water source, usually a pipe leak. The

mold itself is fairly fragile, and once the water source has been eliminated,

rarely survives.

Stachy is one of the several mold species that produces mycotoxins, which it

uses to inhibit or prevent growth of other organisms. Mycotoxins can be found

in living and deal mold spores, and can trigger allergic reactions, similar

to pollen or dust. They have been known to be deadly to farm animals that

ingest them in large amounts, usually while feeding on moldy hay. Exposure to

mold has been linked to hay fever type symptoms, and people with chronic

respiratory diseases and immune suppressed systems can be in danger of more

serious

side effects.

In 1994, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

investigated whether exposure to Stachybotrys might be related to pulmonary

hemorrhage

in infants in Cleveland, Ohio. While the CDC initially concluded that there

was a possible link between exposure to the mold and the condition, a

subsequent review of the study by a group of CDC experts concluded that the

causal

link between exposure to Stachybotrys and bleeding lungs in infants was not

proven due to serious study design flaws. Further investigation found

discrepancies in mold sampling from house to house, as well as no evidence that

the

internal bleeding may have been caused by other factors, such as a viral

infection. Since then, there have not been a conclusive study showing a link

between Stachy and the dire health conditions such as memory loss or pulmonary

hemorrhaging.

Furthermore, mold toxins, while potentially harmful to humans almost never

get into the body in high enough levels to cause permanent or serious harm in

otherwise healthy people. The only documented cases thus far involved

ingestion of spoiled and moldy food. Stachy is not readily airborne, and is not

likely to be breathed in. It tends to grow below floors and behind walls, and

long

before the levels become toxic, people will get mild allergic reaction such

as teary eyes or itchy throat.

The mother of all cases: Melinda Ballard.

Melinda Ballard is a Farmers claimant who received a $32 million dollar jury

award in County over water leak claims on her home. She has been

featured prominently on several national news programs, usually wearing a full

biohazard suit and a gas mask.

Melinda Ballard was a president of Ficom International Inc., a media

relations firm. In 1989 Ballard moved to Texas to run a satellite office. In

1990,

Melinda Ballard purchased a 11,500 square foot house in appropriately named

Dripping Springs, Texas for $275,000 at a foreclosure auction. The house was

modeled after Tara in " Gone With the Wind, " and sat on 73 acres of land. In

1996 and 1997, Ballard filed claims with her insurance carrier Fire Insurance

Exchange (FIE) for plumbing leaks caused by frozen pipes for which FIE issued

payments. The home continued to experience plumbing leaks and the next claim

was made in December 1998, for water damage to the hardwood floors. FIE and

Ballard disagreed on the estimate for the damage to the hardwood floors, and

Ballard hired an attorney to represent her in a suit against FIE. Soon

thereafter her husband, Ron , began having memory problems, and their

son

developed asthma. Stachybotrys was found in the house, and Ballard came to

believe

it was the cause of her family's problems. In 1999, the family left the

house.

The case went to trial in May 2001. The jury returned a verdict in favor of

Ballard for $6.2 million for replacement of the house and its contents, $12

million in punitive damages, $5 million for mental anguish and $8.9 million for

lawyers' fees. Allegations of bodily injury claims were tossed out by the

court due to lack of supporting studies, but the media reporting omitted the

exclusion of bodily injury claims in this matter and pronounced the result as

" the largest mold verdict " case, leading most to believe the damages were due

to mold related bodily injury. appealed the exclusion of the bodily

injury evidence. FIE appealed also, alleging that the evidence was

insufficient to support the jury's award. The appeals court left a $4 million

award for

actual damages but threw out $17 million for mental anguish and punitive

damages. The court also ordered that $8.9 million in attorney's fees be

recalculated and likely reduced. Ballard has now filed a suit against

Farmers

Insurance for libel.

Mold claim explosion

The amount of claims has exploded. Farmers Insurance reports that it had 12

claims in for mold damage in 1999 in Texas and more than 12,000 in the first

half of this 2002.According to the Insurance Information Institute (III),

insurance companies paid more than $1.2 billion for mold related repairs and

litigation in 2002.

And this has no sign of stopping.

Every construction defect suit in California now includes allegation of mold

related bodily injuries. In cases I have handled, mold has been blamed as

the cause for nosebleeds, lung cancer, cystic fibrosis, memory loss, loss of

consciousness, asthma, brain tumors, leukemia and, in one instance HIV. I

believe most of these people are genuinely ill. However, most of them actually

do

not have higher than normal mold levels, and if they do, in less than 5% of

the cases does the presence of the high mold levels linked to any symptoms.

Plaintiff attorneys have started mass mailing apartment buildings and housing

tracts, telling people they might have mold and listing the laundry list of ill

health effects. Most everyone can recall an unexplained headache or a sore

throat. In retrospect, they tend to think mold caused it all, the suit is

filed, and hysteria ensues. One memorable plaintiff who has asthma and lived

with

four cats in a studio apartment was genuinely surprised when mold levels

inside her apartment were found to be lower than outside. She had already

decided that her persistent asthma is caused by mold. Another plaintiff claimed

she

lost consciousness on a daily basis due to mold in her home. However, in

three years of daily fainting she never once mentioned it to her physician. She

did not seem to think it odd, but did request we burn her house down and pay

her a million dollars for pain and suffering. I think she was somewhat

disappointed when mold testing showed no abnormal mold levels in her home

either.

The vultures are out

The publicity surrounding this issue has created a crop of " consultants " and

" experts " seeking to cash in. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that

there are no standards in regard to safe indoor fungal levels, testing

procedures, or regulation of indoor air quality investigators. At the beginning

of

the mold trend, I had a brilliant idea to sell mail order mold testing kits.

As there is always a certain amount of mold spores in the air, they would be

guaranteed to have a positive reaction, and a mold remediation company would

be called in for the expensive repair. I decided this was unethical, because

the results would always be positive, and I foolishly abandoned my idea. That

was a mistake, as dozens of companies now sell online testing kits. For only

$9.95 you too can find mold in your house and sue the builder. Many testing

companies only test spore level inside the suspect unit, not taking a test

sampling outside to compare it with, making count inside the unit fairly

irrelevant. These new mold experts are perpetrating a hoax on people who are

genuinely scared.

Once the mold has been found, concerned residents flee their homes and get

bids for cleanup. Less concerned residents stick around and call an attorney

instead of a remediation crew. I have had cases in which people testified that

they wore gas masks at home, but never quite explained why they never moved

out, got a cleaning crew or even, see a doctor for their illness symptoms.

Because there is no licensing or training of remediation companies, many

people have been defrauded, and frequently the home genuinely contaminated with

mold after a crew attempts to eliminate it. As Stachy tends to reside in

hidden areas, with high humidity and poor ventilation, when mold remediation

crews

open up those areas for further testing, spores can dissipate, contaminating

the entire house. Now that the mold has spread through the house, further

expensive remediation is required. Frequently, there are second and third

generation infections, because disturbing of a small patch of mold can cause

spores spreading rapidly and widely.

One of the latest and most creative additions to the industry is the Mold

Dog, who is supposed to sniff out mold in buildings. The owner of the Mold Dog

claims that he is " certified, " but no details are offered as to the nature or

type of certification and training. Given that there are about 100,000

species of mold, and that some mold is constantly in our environment, it is

unclear

how the Mold Dog really has the sophistication to differentiate a toxic mold

infestation problem caused by water intrusion from the normal levels found.

The owner of the dog claims that as dogs can be used to react to accelerants,

drugs and explosives, having a mold pooch is only natural.

There are certainly reputable mold consultant outfits. However, some

consultants take advantage of the current panic and hysteria, and promote it for

financial gain.

We found mold! What do we do?

Leviticus 14:33-45 describes the appropriate methodology of getting mold out

of one's house. The house should be evacuated, a priest was to inspect the

house, the walls were to be scraped and the house sealed for 7 days. If the

mold would spread, the contaminated stones were to be discarded in an " unclean "

part of town. If mold reappeared again, the house would have to be torn down

entirely and the debris once again put in the unclean part of town. Anyone

who was in the house would have to wash their clothes. Only the priest could

pronounce the mold gone and the house clean. Once the house has been declared

clean, the priest would sacrifice a bird in the house, dip another bird,

hyssop and cedar wood in the blood and sprinkle the house seven times. With the

exception of the bird sacrifice, the procedure remained remarkably the same

today.

Internet sites are doing their best to scare people into buying their

products. The mold industry has exploded after the first Ballard verdict. One

site,

www.mold-help.org, (which subtly features a skull and crossed bones)

explains " Once a building has been contaminated with stachybotrys, many experts

agree that there is no way to remediate it… Even fire is not hot enough to

destroy this mold. Additionally, if even one spore is found in an air sample, it

is

the equivalent of finding thousands, as it is very hard to find stachybotrys

airborne; and it means that this fungus has started to colonize in very high

numbers, and as one might say; a lost cause. " It also links mold with

anything from sore throats and cold symptoms to cancer, hair loss and memory

loss.

Not surprisingly, there are no studies to support these assertions.

CDC claims a bleach and water cleaning of non porous surfaces and discarding

of porous items such as carpets should do the trick. But there have already

been cases of families torching their buildings to get rid of mold instead.

One can never get rid of all mold in a home, just as one can never get rid of

all bacteria inside one's mouth. However, that does not stop some remediation

companies from going to extremely thorough and expensive measures to attempt

to root out mold from every place in the house, usually involving negative

air flow systems as well as biohazard suits. Many businesses, hospitals and

schools try to get rid of all the mold, to avoid lawsuits from inhabitants.

Media role

Stories discounting the impact of health effects on mold do not sell papers;

the sensational are far more interesting, That is why more and more stories

about killer and toxic mold appear through the country. Mold has been found

in schools, hospitals, courthouses, apartment buildings, office buildings-

pretty much everywhere. And suits are multiplying like that other fungus,

mushrooms.

So, is it just all a big lie?

According to the CDC, there has been no evidence that mold today is more

prevalent that at any previous time. However, as people live in poorly

maintained apartments, as cost cutting construction is frequent, and people tend

to

stay indoors more, exposure to mold infestations is on the rise. So there are

definitely many genuine cases, if only few of them have any actual adverse

health effects. As long as people need something to blame for their health

problems, juries are sympathetic to visions of people's homes making them ill

and

insurance companies have money, this will continue. So there will be jobs for

mold experts, mold removal companies, and mold attorneys- and me for a long

time to come.

American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine " Evidence Based

Statement " .

Adverse Human Health Effects Associated with Molds in the Indoor Environment

Acknowledgments

This ACOEM statement was prepared by D. Hardin, PhD, Bruce J. Kelman,

PhD, DABT, and Saxon, MD, under the auspices of the ACOEM Council on

Scientific Affairs. It was peer-reviewed by the Council and its committees, and

was approved by the ACOEM Board of Directors on October 27, 2002. Dr. Hardin

is the former Deputy Director of NIOSH, Assistant Surgeon General (Retired),

and Senior Consultant to Global Tox, Inc, where Dr. Kelman is a Principal.

Dr. Saxon is Professor of Medicine at the School of Medicine, University of

California at Los Angeles.

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