Update with dr's here making comments.Re:Mysterious Death After Gardening

[Guest guest]

Isn't composting basically industrial use of molds, etc. to convert x

into y? (and there is also 'bioremediation' which is mold turning

toxics in an treatment plant into supposedly nontoxic 'biosolids',

which can often still contain toxic levels of things, see " Toxic

Sludge is Good For You, etc.)

I don't know what the health effects of composting in general are but

I do know it can sometimes smell pretty rank.

Garden composting seems pretty small scale, (as long as its done by

others) but does anyone know what kind of health effects composting

has? Feedlots (lots of animal waste) and rotting garbage/landfills

are bad, but there are others. Organized largescale composting of wood

waste can be smelly. Sewage treatment plants can be terrible. (I'm

thinking of the huge one in LA, near Long Beach, does anyone know what

I mean? How can they get away with that!?)

But what about trees, etc. Rotting dead trees are common, but they

usually are individual and limited.

Are municipal compost operations and commercial mulch producers ever

*dangerous*? Have any studies of mycotoxins, 1,3 beta-glucans,

endotoxins, mycotoxins, MVOCs etc. been done in composting that you

know of?

What about gardens? I always have thought of gardening as healthy. At

least if its organic.. you know what I mean?

But.. ??

I can see how this is 'stirring up' a lot of controversy...

On Fri, Jun 13, 2008 at 9:19 AM, tigerpaw2c <tigerpaw2c@...> wrote:

> Mysterious Death After Gardening

> Local Doctors and Experts Disagree on How U.K. Man Died From Mulch

> Exposure

> By LAUREN COX

> ABC News Medical Unit

> June 13, 2008

>

> http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=5058799 & page=1

>

> RSS When a man in England opened some bags of old gardening mulch

> last spring, a dense cloud of dust billowed up around him.

>

> Doctors in the U.K. say the aspergillus spore caused a gardener's

> deadly infection, but medical practioners in the U.S. say the death

> could have been the result of a centuries-old " farmer's lung " or a

> rare genetic disease.

> (Getty/ABC News)The 47-year-old welder did not know that the cloud

> he and his partner saw wasn't dust but spores of a common fungus.

> Nor did he know that his day of gardening would lead to his untimely

> death days later.

>

> Doctors in the local intensive-care unit raced to diagnose him as

> his lungs slowly shut down. Now, a year after his death, specialists

> at the local Buckinghamshire Hospital have published their

> explanation for this unusual case in the journal Lancet.

>

.....

[Guest guest]

I'm still so curious as to what meds they put him on for those first

few days? Because he probably had an Aspergillus Fungal Infection and

only anti-fungal meds would have worked. Not antibiotics nor prednisone.

I had something happen similar. And it took me one a half months to

convince a doctor to try some anti-fungal meds. I was delusional and

weak but kept going from ER to ER and doctor to doctor. Thank God one

good doctor's wife had fungal sensitivities and he believed me.

" Aspergillosis is treated with antifungal drugs, such as amphotericin

BSome Trade Names

FUNGIZONE

, itraconazoleSome Trade Names

SPORANOX

, or voriconazoleSome Trade Names

VFEND

.. Some forms of Aspergillus are resistant to these drugs, however, and

may need to be treated with a caspofunginSome Trade Names

CANCIDAS

, a newer antifungal drug. "

llaci