Scientists 'know very, very little' about health effects (of mold exposure)

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http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/011202/dsd_8305976.html

Saturday, January 12, 2002

Scientists 'know very, very little' about health effects

By Marcia Mattson

Times-Union staff writer

Could mold in your house make you sick? So far, science can only answer:

Maybe.

" That's murky for everybody, and unfortunately is being decided by the

courts, " said Lipsey, a ville toxicologist who does mold

testing and clean-up plans, and serves as an expert witness in mold lawsuits

on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants.

Some people appear to be more sensitive to mold or its spores in general and

can develop allergic symptoms. People who are overexposed to mold may

develop coughs, congestion, runny noses, eye irritation and aggravation of

asthma, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Some common molds can, under the right conditions, make enzymes that are

toxic to human cells in the laboratory. Stachybotrys, aspergillis and

penecillium are a few. But scientific evidence is scant on how people can

become sick in their homes or workplaces from mold toxins.

" We don't have peer-reviewed [scientific] papers showing you can get sick by

means other than ingestion, " said Rose, a research architect with

the University of Illinois Building Research Council. " We do have a lot of

anecdotal evidence of people saying they get sick. "

Rose noted a study by the National Academy of Science completed last year

that summarized what science knows about the relationship between mold and

asthma, a breathing condition with which it's frequently associated.

" Basically, it says we know very, very little, " Rose said.

Rose is overseeing the moisture-monitoring part of a federal study of the

housing conditions of Cleveland children who have asthma. The goal of the

study is to determine whether changing conditions in the house will improve

the children's health.

In the absence of scientific evidence, courts are tending to side with

people who claim they were sickened by mold in buildings, Rose said.

And no state or federal agencies have set an indoor air standard for mold.

" There's not enough good science to make a definitive statement, " said

Lipsey, who has a doctorate in mold poisoning and toxicology and federal

standards for hazardous materials management at the University of North

Florida.

Laurie Pegler, an attorney for the Property Loss Research Bureau, a national

organization that collects information for insurance companies, said she

thinks eventually a medical basis will be established for setting standards.

In the meantime, Lipsey goes into 50 to 60 heavily contaminated homes

throughout the nation each year, and the health effects of the people in

those homes vary widely.

" When babies are dying and people are vomiting blood from a severely

contaminated home, that's real, " Lipsey said.

Other people are just imagining themselves sick after reading or hearing

about the increase in health complaints blamed on mold, he said.

" We can't scare people, but we need to educate them, " Lipsey said.

A mold's stomach is on the outside. It digests the stuff it sits on by

creating enzymes to break down that material.

Rose said the type of enzyme a mold produces depends on what it's eating.

Some strains produce toxic enzymes under certain conditions.

Stachybotrys chartarum -- a greenish-black, slimy mold -- is causing the

biggest scare nationwide.

It has been associated at high levels with bleeding in the lungs of some

infants. More commonly, it has been associated with coldlike symptoms,

rashes, eye infections, aggravated asthma problems, lack of concentration

and fatigue, according to the EPA. Symptoms usually disappear when the

contaminant is removed.

The people most susceptible to serious illness from mold appear to be the

very young, the very old or people with weakened immune systems -- people

like Crabtree.

Crabtree and her husband moved to Ponte Vedra Beach from New Jersey in 1997.

A smoker for 44 years, Crabtree developed shortness of breath. Doctors

diagnosed her with emphysema. She stopped smoking and went to daily

pulmonary rehabilitation for two years. She'd never felt better.

But in August 2000, doctors noticed a change in her lung CT scan from a scan

done the year before. A small growth had formed on her lung.

A biopsy concluded it probably was early-stage cancer. But after doctors at

a Tampa cancer center removed the growth in October 2000, they learned it

was a fungus. The lab results were 99 percent positive for aspergillis, she

said.

" I kind of praised God it wasn't cancer, " Crabtree said. But she'd never

heard of a fungus causing such a health problem.

" I think it's a lot more common than we realize, " she said.

Crabtree, now 64, was placed on antifungal medication twice a day for a

year. Doctors asked where she had been in the past year. The Crabtrees had

been renting an apartment in Ponte Vedra Beach.

Now they own a condo in Ponte Vedra Beach. But before they moved in, they

had a home inspector look for signs of mold and had the seller correct some

moisture problems.

Marcia Mattson can be reached at (904) 359-4073 or at

mmattson@....