mycotoxins in building materials from water damaged buildings

[Guest guest]

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=101430 & blobtype=pdf

APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, May 2000, p.

1899–1904 Vol. 66, No.

5

0099-2240/00/$04.00 0

Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. .

Mycotoxins in Crude Building Materials from

Water-Damaged Buildings

TAPANI TUOMI,1* KARI REIJULA,1 TOM JOHNSSON,1 KAISA

HEMMINKI,2

EEVA-LIISA HINTIKKA,1 OUTI LINDROOS,1 SEIJA KALSO,3 PIRKKO

KOUKILA-KAHKOLA,4 ¨ ¨ ¨

HELENA MUSSALO-RAUHAMAA,5 AND TARI HAAHTELA5

Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH), Uusimaa Regional

Institute, FIN-00370 Helsinki,1 City of Vantaa

Environment Center, FIN-01300 Vantaa,2 City of Helsinki

Environment Center, FIN-00530 Helsinki,3 and

HUCH Diagnostics, Mycological Laboratory,4 and Department of

Dermatology and Allergic Diseases,5

Helsinki University Central Hospital,

FIN-00250 Helsinki, Finland

Received 7 September

1999/Accepted 1 March 2000

We analyzed 79 bulk samples of moldy interior ï¬nishes from Finnish

buildings with moisture problems for

17 mycotoxins, as well as for fungi that could be isolated using one medium

and one set of growth conditions.

We found the aflatoxin precursor, sterigmatocystin, in 24% of the samples and

trichothecenes in 19% of the

samples. Trichothecenes found included satratoxin G or H in ï¬ve samples;

diacetoxyscirpenol in ï¬ve samples;

and 3-acetyl-deoxynivalenol, deoxynivalenol, verrucarol, or T-2-tetraol in

an additional ï¬ve samples. Citrinine

was found in three samples. Aspergillus versicolor was present in most

sterigmatocystin-containing samples, and

Stachybotrys spp. were present in the samples where satratoxins were found.

In many cases, however, the

presence of fungi thought to produce the mycotoxins was not correlated with

the presence of the expected

compounds. However, when mycotoxins were found, some toxigenic fungi usually

were present, even if the

species originally responsible for producing the mycotoxin was not isolated.

We conclude that the identiï¬cation

and enumeration of fungal species present in bulk materials are important to

verify the severity of mold

damage but that chemical analyses are necessary if the goal is to establish

the presence of mycotoxins in moldy

materials.

....

Mycotoxins are " natural products produced by fungi that

evoke a toxic response when introduced in low concentrations

to higher vertebrates by a natural route " (J. W. , Ed-

itorial, Mycopathologia 100:3–5, 1987). These compounds can

cause a wide range of acute and chronic systemic effects in

humans and animals that cannot be attributed to fungal growth

within the host or allergic reactions to foreign proteins (22).

The over 400 known mycotoxins are all complex organic com-

pounds, most with molecular masses between 200 and 800 kDa

(40), that are not volatile at ambient temperatures. Inhalant

exposure to mycotoxins can occur by inhaling airborne partic-

ulates containing mycotoxins, including dust and fungal com-

ponents. In agricultural settings, mycotoxicoses in both farm

animals and humans can result from oral, dermal, or inhalant

exposure of mycotoxin-contaminated grain or dust (for re-

views, see references 4, 11, 12, 23, 36, 38, and 41). In laboratory

mammals, symptoms can be induced by systemic, oral, dermal,

subcutaneous, or inhalant exposure (25, 44), with inhalant ex-

posure in some cases being several orders of magnitude more

toxic than dermal or even systemic administration (13, 32, 34).

Toxigenic fungi have been isolated from building materials

and air samples in buildings with moisture problems, where the

residents have suffered from nonspeciï¬c symptoms possibly

related to mycotoxin production, such as cough; irritation of

eyes, skin, and respiratory tract; joint ache; headache; and

fatigue (3, 8–10, 24, 27, 29, 37, 39). In some cases involving

Stachybotrys chartarum (Ehrenberg ex Link) , exposure

has resulted in pulmonary hemorrhage (8–10), and S. charta-

....

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=101430 & blobtype=pdf