Damp conditions contribute to mold

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Damp conditions contribute to mold

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May 4, 2001 - 11:03 PM

Damp conditions contribute to mold

By T. Pegram

The News & Advance

Since Biblical times, people have known damp walls and mold mean

trouble.

Leviticus describes what happens when a bad case of persistent mold

is found

in a home.

" It must be torn down - its stones, timbers and all the plaster -

and taken

out of the town to an unclean place. "

Stachybotrys chartarum wasn't the name by which the ancient people

knew

mildew, but they knew once it permeates the walls, it's not going to

do

anyone much good.

Stachybotrys forms a greenish-black stain on the wall.

Like mildew and yeast, Stachybotrys is a fungus. It grows from a

spore. Mold

and spores are part of the world we live in.

" Fungus makes up about 25 percent of the bio-mass of the world, "

said Dr.

Dorr G. Dearborn, of Case Western Reserve University, a physician-

researcher

studying link between lung hemorrhage in a group of infants under 8

months

old, and the presence of Stachybotrys in their home environments.

Stachybotrys isn't the only fungus that that thrives in wet walls,

soggy

carpet or damp floors. Where those conditions exist, so do a variety

of

molds.

A fungus is a parasite-like life form, and Stachybotrys needs water

and wood

fiber to grow, and particularly paper, which is cellulose fiber.

Under the right conditions it doesn't take long to flourish.

" For mold to start growing, wet conditions need to exist for a

period of

days, " said toxicologist Harriet Ammann, Washington State Department

of

Health, office of Environmental Health Assessment.

" What often happens when areas are intermittently wet, is that molds

start

to grow during a wet period, and stop and go dormant during dry

periods.

" When the area where the mold is gets wet again, it can break

dormancy and

begin growing quickly, in a matter of hours. "

Ammann said in a written response to questions, that dormant molds,

as well

as those that have been killed, can continue to cause allergic

reactions and

also retain their toxic properties.

" That is why it is important to remove the contamination, not just

kill it, "

she said.

The spore is slimy, and not easily airborne when wet. " When it is

dry,

however, disturbance of the growth site can throw spores into the

air, where

they can be inhaled if they get into a person's breathing zone, "

Ammann

said.

Stachybotrys produces mycotoxins, which are harmful chemical

substances.

Both federal and state health experts are investigating what may be a

mold-caused outbreak of bleeding in the lungs of infants in the

Cleveland

area in the mid-1990s.

In Dearborn's research of the cluster of cases in Cleveland in the

1990s,

the amount of Stachybotrys was thought to be greater in those

infant's

homes.

" The pulmonary hemorrhage may relate to the rapid growing lungs, and

the

toxins the fungus can produce may make the blood vessels fragile,

another

stress comes along (such as tobacco smoke) and they have stress

failure of

these fragile capillaries. "

Dearborn said that the work with the infants does not yet prove that

the

fungus caused the bleeding, although it was present. The research is

ongoing, he said.

Spores contain toxins. " If you inhale the spores, then the toxins

come along

with it, " said Dearborn.

" We are seeing children from all over the country who have had

extensive

exposure to toxic fungi in their homes, and yes, there are some

health

effects.

" But that is in contrast to the more casual, shorter exposures in a

public

building or a school, " he said.

In those sorts of exposures, unless people are already sensitized

such as an

asthmatic or have other breathing problems, " the casual exposure you

get in

a school is probably not major enough to produce major health

problems. "

But if a person is immune-suppressed, or allergic, " it is a

different ball

game, " said Dearborn. He said he works with families who come from

extremely

contaminated homes.

A teacher in a heavily contaminated area in a school, working every

day all

day long, " would have much more exposure. "

When schools are found to have Stachybotrys, he said, " there is a

lot of

overreaction, hysteria. "

The way schools were designed in the '50s and '60s, produced roof

leaks,

water intrusion, mold growth - toxic or not. Over all, it is not

healthy for

people to be in that. "

Although some molds can grow in human tissue, Stachybotrys does not,

said

Dr. Redd, chief of the air pollution and respiratory health

branch

of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control in Atlanta.

" We're working to understand the health effects of molds, " he said.

Molds produce mycotoxins which some consider to be the cause of any

health

problems.

Ammann describes mycotoxins as complex molecules. " The best

knowledge that

we have right now as to why they put so much energy into making the

poisons,

is that it gives the spores a competitive edge for survival by

inhibiting

other organism in the quest for food, water. "

In a 1998 study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology,

the

group of authors, which included Dearborn, looked at the toxins

produced by

Stachybotrys and another similar fungus, Memnoniella echinata.

Stachybotrys produces substances that are highly toxic to cells and

also

affect the immune system. Research on heavy doses of those

substances shows

a wide variety of effects.

But taking that a step further and proving human illness beyond

allergy

isn't yet possible.

The large medical practice near Jefferson Forest High School, for

example,

has more patient concern, but according to Dr. W. Eppes Jr.,

not more

illness that can be related to conditions at Jefferson Forest.

Although a number of public buildings have been closed to remove

mold, a

distinctive pattern of illnesses isn't documented, said Redd.

" One of the important issues is the degree of contamination, " said

Redd. " In

terms of a particular situation the degree of risk has more to do

with the

amount of area affected than the particular species of mold. "

Once the moldy areas are removed, and the air cleaned, there's no

need to be

nervous afterward, he said. " Most spores there are at the site of

the mold

growth. "

Even people who attended Jefferson Forest long ago want more

information.

Sherry Spinner, who graduated in 1986, says she developed asthma

symptoms.

Most of her problems seemed to show up around the gym, when she

played

basketball.

" I'd bend over, and couldn't catch my breath. "

When she graduated and went on to Radford, she was diagnosed with

asthma,

and has since found that the allergies she has include mold.

She wants to know more about the mold at the school.

" I would be interested in knowing how long it had been there. "