Mold Mycotoxins

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ScienceDaily (Dec. 9, 2008) ¡ª Mould toxins in buildings damaged by

moisture are considerably more prevalent than was previously thought,

according to new international re-search. a Bloom from the

Division of Medical Microbiol-ogy at Lund University in Sweden has

contributed to re-search in this field by analyzing dust and

materials samples from buildings damaged by mould. Virtually all of

the sam-ples contained toxins from mould.

¨DPreviously it was claimed that the occurrence of mould does not

necessarily mean that there are toxins present. But they are! On the

contrary, we can assume that wher-ever there is visible mould, there

are also mould toxins,¡¬ says a Bloom.

And toxins produced by mould are more potent than was previously

thought. It has now been shown, for instance, that mould toxins

(mycotoxins) not only directly kill cells but can also affect immune

cells in a way that increases the risk of allergies. Even incredibly

tiny amounts of these tox-ins can do this, as little as a few

picograms (a picogram is one millionth of a millionth of a gram).

New research also shows that mould releases extremely small particles

that remain suspended in the air, and can get into our lungs much

more easily than the spores that have previously been focused on.

This can increase expo-sure to mould and mycotoxins hundreds of times

over com-pared with previous calculations. And mycotoxins have fur-

ther been shown in laboratory studies to have a synergistic effect:

the effect of two toxins is not merely 1 + 1 but much greater.

Using methods from analytical chemistry, a Bloom ana-lyzed dust

sample and samples from construction materials such as molding,

drywall, and wallpaper from buildings damaged by mould. She acquired

nearly all of the samples from professional damage assessors.

¨DWe looked at 6-7 different mycotoxins and found them in a majority

of the samples. And since there are at least 400 sorts of mycotoxins,

what we have seen is probably just the tip of the iceberg,¡¬ she says.

Mould in buildings is a phenomenon that has been known since the

times of the Old Testament. In Leviticus mention is made of spots

that constitute ¨Da fretting leprosy in the house,¡¬ and should be

scraped off and thrown away ¨Din some unclean place.¡¬

¨DActually, we haven¡¯t made all that much progress today,¡¬ maintains

a Bloom. ¨DWe know that people are sickened

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The Policyholder Advocate January 2009 issue

by buildings damaged by moisture, but whether this is primarily

caused by my-cotoxins, bacteria, or gases given off by the moist

build-ing materials, this we don¡¯t know exactly. We should therefore

observe the prin-ciple of caution and reno-vate the building as soon

as a moisture problem or mould is found.¡¬

After she defends her the-sis on December 6, a Bloom will start

working with indoor-environment issues at the IVL, the Swedish

Environmental Research Institute. Her thesis director, Lennart

Larsson, is continuing his research with the Lund team, for example

partici-pating in a major EU pro-ject on indoor environ-ments in

schools and their possible connections to asthma and allergies.