If you don't tell them - who will?

[Guest guest]

Friends, Sorry to be so quiet. Max and I both have been having a lot of

health problems. The base of our skulls are swollen again and the pain is

constant. For those of you who wanted more information about the National

Academy of Sciences Committee to investigate Damp Indoor Spaces and Health

(Project ID # HPDP-H-00-06-A ), they have held one meeting and the notes are

posted on this website. Please take the time to write to the committee and

tell them about your experiences with toxic molds. If we don't rise to the

occasion, chances are they will ignore all the evidence and persist with the

inane allergenic theory.

Start here to read about the project

http://www4.nas.edu/cp.nsf/Projects+_by+_PIN/HPDP-H-00-06-A?OpenDocument

and when you want to write to them, go to this page

http://www4.nationalacademies.org/webfdbk.nsf/Feedback?OpenForm & HPDP-H-00-06

-A

I have sent the following letter:

Dear Members,

Please enter my comments into the permanent record of this committee. Let

me say up front, I am not an academician or researcher, nor do I have a

medical background. What I am is a person who went to work in a moldy

building in October 1989 where an infestation of toxic molds was allowed to

thrive in an open plenum system unremediated and undisclosed to employees

for years while the building's occupants sickened and suffered a range of

health effects - including numerous deaths - deaths attributed to heart

attacks, brain and breast cancer and diseases related to lung disease and

complications from

immune system dysfunction.

Whether the myriad health effects observed in my colleagues over the years

were the direct result of

mycotoxin exposure, a mix of effects and prior health and/or genetic

factors

will probably never be known since no medical data was collected but,

if there is one value inherent in

anecdotal evidence it is that these observations, while not specific can

have probative value as the springboard of research projects. Over the

years since my exposure, I have carefully compiled anecdotal

evidence from people exposed to mycotoxins, along with thousands of news

accounts at the

support and information website I moderate entitled " Sick Buildings

Support

and Information " located at /

This data falls into a pattern that anyone seriously interested in

investigating could easily follow - first

people report being ill (this may happen for years until they are taken

seriously or several people die), then an environmental investigation is

undertaken and reveals a

serious contamination problem - usually toxic molds as the result of water

damage penetrating the building's envelope or shoddy construction

practices. Finally, the building is either destroyed or an attempt is made

to remediate it. Sometimes the victims are assisted, but since so little is

known about mycotoxicoses, few doctors are able to offer more than

palliative care. This simply humane - ask my 10 year old who was exposed in

my womb and continuously during the first 4 years of his life as I returned

from work wearing mold covered clothing. Often, the first thing I would do

was pick up my son, placing his face directly on my shoulder where he easily

could have inhaled spores that landed on my clothing.

The

data we've evaluated from thousands of mold victims clearly leads us to

believe that inhalation exposure research should be a priority, especially

in light of the astronomical increase in asthma cases as well as the

emergence of a host of supposed autoimmune diseases that were nonexistent 50

years ago.

Initially, when I learned the National Academies were convening a

committee on the connection between damp " spaces " and mold growth leading

to health

effects, I was elated initially believing that the efforts of thousands of

people

affected by mycotoxin exposure - letters, phone calls, personal contacts,

etc. - over the past decade to wake up our medical personnel and public

health agencies to the growing threat of this serious health hazard were

finally paying off. However, a closer examination of committee members

and a review of their published research deeply troubles me because I see

a

committee lacking specific expertise and dominated by one school of

thought, not a committee comprised as

one would expect of diverse viewpoints.

A recent review article written by the chair, Dr. Harriet Burge entitled

" Fungi: toxic killers or unavoidable nuisances? " published in ls of

Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in which she concludes that " the primary

result from fungal exposure is allergic disease and that the evidence for

inhalation disease resulting from mycotoxin exposure in residential and

office settings is extremely weak, " only confirms my suspicions that this

committee already has formed the basis for it's conclusions and can be

expected to accomplish little more than rubber stamping the prior work of

the chair. Whether you want to accept the research of the Mayo Clinic

showing mold as the culprit in over 90% of sinusitis, it is stupid to ignore

the complex health effects many mycotoxin victims are experiencing, since we

are most likely the tip of the iceberg. Even a cursory review of the

information and media accounts we've collected shows the words

" arthritis-like " and " chronic fatigue " repeated time and time again as

symptoms victims often experience.

While I am not an academician, I do know enough about the publication

imperative to realize that the chair would hardly be inclined to foster

this committee's findings and make recommendations that are in conflict

with the

body of her lifetime research efforts - efforts that serve to support the

allergenic

hypothesis. This

observation is further fostered by the lack of an inhalation expert being

appointed to this committee - despite the fact that the small amount of

research into mycotoxin related illness during

the past decade has clearly shown a need for this to be investigated.

Also, there is no expert on fungal toxins represented on the committee.

This is a serious omission and must be rectified if this committee's

recommendations are to be taken seriously.

Why has so little research been funded to investigate this issue? An

internationally recognized expert in mycotoxins has been

trying for years, to no avail to get funding for tests that the NAS

committee report

" Clearing the Air " agreed will measure mold exposure. In the meantime, many

employees sickened by mold toxins are left twisting in the wind - often

unable to collect unemployment or disability benefits to help support their

families because they are unable to sufficiently " prove " cause and effect.

Hundred of families have been affected - many of them unable to vacate and

leave behind a lifetime of possessions grow sicker or else file for

bankruptcy and lose everything.

This committee, being tasked with the review of the non-infectious health

effects of fungi,

including allergens, mycotoxins and other biologically active products, as

well as making recommendations or suggest guidelines for public health

interventions and for future basic science, clinical, and public health

research in these areas, welds a great deal of power.

Those of us who have been sickened by mycotoxins from molds like

stachybotrys, aspergillus and penicillum, have repeatedly asked for

research - especially research into the inhalation of mycotoxins. We have

reported time and time again

that quite often, the first indication we ever have of mycotoxin exposure

are

through lung infections, coughing and/or lung involvement - obviously a

sign

of inhalation involvement. The body of research into the health effects

of

ingesting

mycotoxins through the food supply are well established, so it boggles the

mind why so little research has been funded that investigates inhalation

of

mycotoxins. This committee doesn't need me to tell them about the

epidemic of toxic mold that is sweeping not only the United States, but New

Zealand and other countries - they have only to pick up any newspaper or

magazine. The same thing applies to learn that asthma and COPD deaths have

become

commonplace.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit my comments. I look forward to

following this committee's findings and sincerely hope that in the end,

academic honesty will prevail and lead to solid recommendations so protocols

and standards can be developed. No one should ever have to live through

what my family and hundreds of families like ours have endured.

Sincerely,

Barbara Herskovitz

707 Lothian Drive

Tallahassee, FL 32312

(850) 385-8842