Guest guest Posted October 11, 2010 Report Share Posted October 11, 2010 I think white mold may have been my first exposure. It was growing in my dad's garage & got on things I stored there - not visibly GROWING mind you - that I then brought to my house. That's when I started feeling very confused - running errands was sooooo complicated it took all day just to leave the house. I became very impatient & upset with minor mishaps like trying to open a package I struggled with. Under my eyes got swollen - it was like this cresent moon shape of swelling just under my dark circle. I got disoriented while driving familiar routes & forgot what it was that I do when I step in the shower. Driving to work one night I thought about my diseased mother & went into an uncontrollable crying fit. I called work & finally composed myself & went in where I cried for another hour. When someone asked what happened I didn't want to start crying again & talk about it. He insisted & cried for about 8 hours straight on the bathroom floor in the corner... non-stop with no breather. The mold showed up as a white dust, It had phases where it smelled like urine. It was unaffected by low temps. Although it was not visible it remained potent after cleaning (even non-porous items) & I threw a lot of stuff out. My plants did not grow a millimeter until I moved out & left the one piece of furniture behind. IMHO this stuff was more nasty than black mold. Visiting friends got that cresent moon swelling under their eyes that never went away. > > A friend tells me that a white mold has been growing all over his stuff. It looks sort of streaky white. Someone (I think maybe at a dry cleaner's) identified it as white penicillium. > > It especially likes leather, polyester, wool and unfinished hard wood (like an old desk from the 1920s that the finish has worn off of). It does not seem to like cotton, rayon, plastic, paper or finished wood. > > Keeping dehumidifiers at 40% has not stopped it from growing. Microban, a disinfectant, does not stop it. Odoban, another disinfectant, seems to help. > > It grows very fast and spreads over the surface of everything. > > There's a khaki colored mold that he's found occasionally in conjunction with it. > > This does not seem to be a mold that grows in walls. It grows on the surface of objects. The first time he saw the mold was when he was moving into a new apartment and found it on some of his suits (which were in storage bags). He got rid of the suits right away, but it then quickly started appearing on all kinds of other things in the apartment (including brand new things). > > He is having respiratory issues that he attributes to the mold. He's not sure if cognitive and emotional symptoms are due to the mold or just random. (He doesn't have CFS or anything similar, but thinks he's sensitive to toxic mold.) > > He's going to send a sample to Mouldworks to see for sure what it is. > > I'd like to know if anyone here has run into this mold before though. > > If so, did it cause a toxic type reaction? > > Thanks much for your help. > > Best, > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 5, 2010 Report Share Posted November 5, 2010 --- In , " Jack Thrasher, Ph.D. " <toxicologist1@...> wrote: > > The moldy growth you have described appears to like probably Actinobacteria. These are bacteria and have a mycelial type growth pattern. The can cause serious infections and asthma like condition (hypersensitivity pneumonitis). A sample should be cultured to determine the actual organism. It is also possible that it is a fungus. > > Jack-Dwayne: Thrasher, Ph.D. > Toxicologist/Immunotoxicologist/Fetaltoxicologist > www.drthrasher.org > toxicologist1@... > Off: 916-745-4703 > Cell: 575-937-1150 Hi Dr. Thrasher, Thank you for providing this information. It sounded to me like this Actinobacteria was a good match for what my friend describes finding in his apartment. He sent tape samples to MouldWorks. The samples were taken from two different wool suits, stored in different closets in his apartment. He says that neither had previously had this white " stuff " on them when he checked on them, and that it appeared spontaneously. Below is MouldWorks' report. They state that no bacterial or fungal cells were found on either sample. As a recap, this is what my friend reports. I've not visited his apartment myself. He moved into a new apartment and soon found one of his wool suits covered with white " stuff. " He got rid of the suit. Then this white " stuff " started appearing on lots of other things in the apartment. In some cases, they would be fine one day and then covered with substantial amounts of it a few days later. He only has found this " stuff " on wool, leather, wood and synthetic fabrics. He has not found any on paper, cotton (except one pair of jeans), silk, metal, plastic or glass. The only time he's seen it on books is a couple with fabric covers. He has taken his wool suits to a couple of different reputable dry cleaners. They have gone through the suits, identified the substance as " mold, " advised him that some of the suits cannot be cleaned and need to be discarded, and cleaned the others according to their protocols. This is not a minor problem and is ruining everything in his apartment, he says. Lemon oil (in a product combined with petroleum distillate) does a good job preventing this stuff from re-growing on wood, he said. A disinfectant product called Odoban also seems to help. Another disinfectant product, Microban, seems to provide no help whatsoever. (Just speculating: this pattern sounds to me like this " stuff " may only be growing on things that previously have been treated with chemicals. That's kind of a scary thought.) A wool suit that he kept hanging in his office did not have any of this on it at one point, and then had it spontaneously appear, he said. He purchased several dehumidifiers and air purifiers for his home, and has been keeping the humidity at 40-50%. The " white stuff " has been appearing less, he said. His respiratory problems (which he did not have before moving into this apartment) continue. He is going to see a doctor about them today. Based on my long relationship with my friend, I find it hard to believe he's not reporting what's happening accurately. And based on my own experiences with mold industry professionals who insisted that there was nothing especially wrong with my house (even though it turned out to have a significant mold problem), I'm hesitant to take any lab findings as definitive. My friend says that this stuff spreads so rapidly that it's impossible to keep it in check. He's currently in the process of storing or getting rid of everything that it might grow on (or that can't be washed), and then washing everything else. He's not previously had toxic mold exposures and is not experiencing any symptoms of toxic mold exposure (e.g. emotional or cognitive). Whether this " stuff " is toxic thus is unclear. Do you have any thoughts? Or has anyone here ever had anything like this problem happen to them? If this stuff is toxic, it seems like it eventually will be a game ender for me since I can't imagine why it wouldn't eventually take over the whole world. So in addition to wanting to help my friend, I'm concerned for us Moldies. Thanks so much for your help. Best, * This is a final report from MouldWorks on the set of two tapelift samples we received November 3rd, 2010, taken from your home at the address above. Here are your results: Sample #1289-1 tape (BR - Closet) Microscope: No fungi seen, not cultured Sample #1289-2 tape (Hall - Closet) Microscope: No fungi seen, not cultured General Comments Our analysis of the above tapelift samples found absolutely no evidence of a microbial infestation at either of the sites sampled in your home. The samples were examined under the compound microscope and no fungal or bacterial cells were observed on either one. In short, there is nothing in this sample set that would indicate the presence of an indoor microbial infestation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 5, 2010 Report Share Posted November 5, 2010 Tape lift samples are not adequate to detect bacteria. Specific cultures should have been done for Gram negative and positive bacteria. As mentioned, the Gram Positive bacteria (Actinobacteria) are potentially dangerous. For example, non tuberculin Mycobacterium can systemic disease referred to as MAC (Mycobacterium Avium Complex). Both Mycobacterium and Streptomyces spp can also cause hypersensitivity pneumonitis (a non allergy lung disease). They should have also cultured for fungi and yeast. [] Re: White Mold > > The moldy growth you have described appears to like probably Actinobacteria. These are bacteria and have a mycelial type growth pattern. The can cause serious infections and asthma like condition (hypersensitivity pneumonitis). A sample should be cultured to determine the actual organism. It is also possible that it is a fungus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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