Authority on Mold Talks about Rashes and mold exposure

[Guest guest]

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Benson doctor is authority on mold

Dr. Gray

by THELMA GRIMES

News-Sun

There are 200 different growing molds and fungi in the world that have

existed for at least three billion years, including some that may pose

health threats, according to Benson Dr. Gray, a nationally

recognized authority on mold.

He said most molds are harmless, aside from their tendency to induce

allergies, for those prone to develop allergies in the first place.

" It all depends on the degree of exposure, " Gray said. " We are all exposed

to mold spores all the time. Generally speaking, our immune system deals

with it. However, it's indicated that there are some people for whom it

becomes an intractable infection and an ongoing problem. I have several

patients who were severely damaged neurologically and have yet to recover.

It's a variable course with no certainty. Some people can recover and some

don't. "

Through a monthly mold clinic, Gray has 350 patients, most nationwide, with

three in Benson, who suffer from some type of mold exposure.

Gray started treating a developmentally disabled Benson resident for a rash

close to two years ago. " We tried to diagnose it ourselves, " Gray said. " We

sent her to a dermatologist and nobody could figure out what was going on.

She finally improved significantly when we put her on an asthma medication.

She almost went into remission but still had a raw or red rash on her neck.

Then she came in one day and said the rash was gone. "

Gray said the rash disappeared after the woman moved out of her bedroom. The

bedroom had roof leaks that had been causing mold to grow up and down the

walls. However, Gray said the woman was still being exposed to the mold

growth by passing through the room regularly.

" I raised concerns with her caseworker, " Gray said. " But their response was

that they found her another doctor. To my knowledge other than some repairs

on the roof, they never remediated the mold. "

In another case, Gray said a Benson resident is suffering from exposure to

aspergilliosis, the second most common fungal infection requiring

hospitalization in the U.S.

It's a relatively common mold, according to Gray, but certain strains are

particularly problematic. The female patient hasn't been exposed to

structural mold intrusion, but has lost two-thirds of her right lung to the

organism over a period of several years, said Gray.

" It's just literally eating at most of the entire lung, " Gray said. " She's

had several hospitalizations, and we've had to make extraordinary efforts to

have her insurance company pay. For some health insurance companies there's

not a question asked and the work is covered. But others, particularly HMOs,

there's a tendency for them to argue that the tests are extraordinary, and

it's not a covered benefit. They don't want to pay for laboratory work and

that becomes a costly process. "

A visit to one of Gray's mold clinics costs patients a $250 deposit. He said

the evaluation cost is close to $5,000, due to laboratory costs in excess of

$3,000. " Our time in these cases is quite extensive; it goes well beyond

just a couple of hours. "

Gray usually accepts patients who have confirmed exposure demonstrated by

industrial hygiene or air-quality testing surveys of their homes. He said

patients usually have confirmed presence of high concentrations of toxic

structural molds.

Besides being an internist, Gray is board certified in general preventive

and occupational medicine. He is board prepared in internal medicine,

emergency medicine and toxicology.

He said " molds can be implicated in any number of illnesses beyond just

allergies. There are several occupational lung diseases that can be induced

by molds. It depends on what the problems are and treatment can be varied.

You focus on the organ systems and you figure out where there is a problem. "

Gray said an almost universal finding is that all patients have an unusual

lung condition, known as hypersensitivity numinous (sic) (should be

pneumonitis), which causes airway obstruction. There's also evidence of

immune suppression and a series of different neuralgic abnormalities.

" There can be other multiple organ systems involved, " Gray said. " It's clear

that there are complicated series of illnesses associated with molds. They

can make it difficult to be easily recognized; patients can go to physicians

who don't have a particular awareness of these problems, and the condition

is often missed. The association with some kind of environmental factor is

missed and patients are told it's a psychological problem.

" Physicians are often trained to think about psychological problems when

people come in with a large array of complaints that affect multiple organ

systems, " said Gray. He said a significant learning process within the

medical community is creating more awareness as more cases are documented.

Mold is created in crawl spaces like in the insulation between walls, and

there are several species of sometimes-hazardous airborne molds growing out

of control.

Arizona Department of Health Services Epidemiology Specialist Ernest Arvizu

said there are no regulations on mold restriction because the mold is a

natural occurring thing that grows under the right conditions.

" Unless it's a renter having the problem, " Arvizu said, " then it becomes an

issue for the health department. If it's a homeowner, they have to handle

the situation through their homeowner's insurance and clean it up. "

To prevent mold growth, the source of moisture and/or food source must be

removed, said Gray. Since molds can use almost any organic material for

food, the best prevention measure is to remove the moisture, he said.

" All it takes is a combination of water, a source of cellulose as a

nutrient, which would be the paper or the lumber and spores, " Gray said.

" Since the paper has been documented to show that the spores are present

before water is ever introduced, it's literally just a growth meteor waiting

for nutrients and moisture. "

To kill mold, Gray said, it's common to use bleach. But bleach won't kill

Stachybotrys, the most toxic of molds, said Gray.

He said Stachybotrys poses a special problem because, while many molds may

be remediated, Stachybotrys is particularly resistant to normal attempts at

treatment. He said spores could survive temperatures as high as 500 degrees.

If mold is suspected in a home, Indoor Environmentalist Carl Grimes said a

professional mediation company should make the proper diagnosis.

Grimes said one person can be highly reactive to whatever is growing in a

building, but it's not a danger to the rest of the family or public. Grimes

said molds are one of the most difficult things to understand when defining

what is safe and what is unsafe. "