Does Mold Really Cause Sickness?

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Does Mold Really Cause Sickness?

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1594353/does_mold_really_cause_sickness/

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 October 2008, 08:20 CDT

Flooding from Hurricane Katrina caused fungus expert Joan to

believe in so-called toxic mold.

The black goo had caused her New Orleans home to smell terrible, and

it was then she decided to change her research focus and find out if

the fungi that took over most of the flooded homes on the Gulf Coast

might make people ill.

" The overwhelming obnoxiousness of the odor and of the enveloping air

made me start to believe in something that I had never believed in

before -- sick building syndrome, " said , of Rutgers University

in New Jersey.

The research has proved harder than she originally thought.

says molds could cause illness in susceptible people through

volatile organic compounds: gassy versions of chemicals produced as

the organisms metabolize food.

So far, she's been unable to show this in the lab. She reported her

findings to a joint meeting of the American Society for Microbiology

and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Bennet has tested various molds on the laboratory roundworm C. elegans.

" Sometimes the worm swims away and sometimes the worm does nothing and

sometimes the worm eats the fungus, " said.

" I am actually looking for something that has never been discovered by

methods that have never been worked out. "

Hundreds of people have won lawsuits by claiming mold in their homes

or work environments have made them ill.

Dr. Denning of the University of Manchester in Britain agrees it

is plausible that molds and fungi would emit volatile organic compounds.

The findings could form the basis of diagnosing fungal illness by

using a breath test. Supposedly, people with fungal infections of the

lungs, such as aspergillosis, would release these chemicals when they

breathed.

" A certain group of severe asthmatics -- about a million people -- are

sensitive to a number of different fungi, " Denning said.

These include Aspergillus and Candida.

" This is almost certainly a genetic issue, " he added. " If you have (a)

predisposition (to asthma), you probably have an additional

predisposition to fungal sensitization. "

Dr. Goldman, a pediatrician in the Bronx, New York, said asthma

rates are disproportionately high.

Dr. Goldman blames Cryptococcus neoformins, a microbe found in pigeon

droppings that causes disease in immune-compromised people.

" We believe this fungus contributes to asthma by modulating the immune

response, " Goldman said.

The doctors said treating patients with antifungal drugs like

itraconozole and fluconazole relieved symptoms of patients with severe

asthma; they also agreed it would likely take a combination of factors

-- including a person genetically susceptible to molds and unusual

fungal activity -- to cause any disease.

" It is probably a relatively temporary disease, not a life-threatening

disease, " Denning said.

" As we sit here we are probably breathing in hundreds of spores, "

added. " Usually we only get sick if our immune systems are

compromised or if we have this genetic susceptibility to allergy. "