Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation

[Guest guest]

Household Mold.(as a cause of allergy-like and flu-like illnesses)

Author/s: Jule Klotter

Issue: Nov, 2001

The growth of mold in homes has become an officially-recognized source of

serious illness. On the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota,

320 homes are mold-infested. An estimated 210 homes will have to be

destroyed. The mold, in particular black mold (stachybotrys chartarum),

causes flu-like and allergy-like symptoms. Skin rashes, inflammation of the

respiratory tract, bloody noses, fever, headaches, neurological problems,

and suppression of the immune system have all been linked to exposure to

black mold. Its presence causes serious health problems, especially among

children, and has been blamed for at least 7 deaths. The tribe believes that

excessive moisture from two nearby dams and from increased rainfall in the

past few years have encouraged the mold to thrive. " This is not a

circumstance where you've got a little mold in a corner, " Sen. Kent Conrad

of North Dakota, who personally viewed the contaminated homes, said. " This

is a situation where you have mold that's throughout the structure... in the

insulation, in the ceilings. I've never seen anything quite like it. "

While the situation on Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation may be extreme, it

is by no means isolated. A$1 million judgement against a landlord, who

ignored complaints about water leaks and mold problems from two tenants, was

upheld by the Delaware Supreme Court in May 2001. The tenants said that the

mold in their apartments had led to respiratory problems. In Texas, a

synthetic stucco material has been blamed for trapping moisture behind

walls, a perfect breeding ground for mold. Seventy families are suing the

manufacturer of the material and the builder who used it on their houses;

one-third of the people complain of mold-related health problems. These

court cases have been complicated by the lack of a health standard

concerning mold and by the variations in the symptoms of mold-related

illness. " The problem with mold is that it doesn't affect people uniformly, "

says on, the Woodland Hills, California, lawyer who says he has

more than 1,000 mold cases pending. " We can be in a room that has toxic

mold. I might have skin rash, headache and flu symptoms. You may be rushed

off to a hospital with respiratory distress. "

The California Senate has approved a bill that requires the state health

department to set mold standards, but such standards take years of research

to establish. In the meantime, N. Bass, a Phoenix lawyer who

represents real estate agents and brokers advises them to recommend, in

writing, that home buyers have the house inspected for mold as part of the

pre-sale inspection.

" There's fungus among us: Mold is everywhere " by Umberger. The

Herald-Sun, August 26, 2001

" Trouble in the air at Turtle Mountain " by Witte. The Herald-Sun,

August 26, 2001.

" Homeowners vs. toxic mold " by Alan J. Heavens. The Herald-Sun, August 26,

2001

COPYRIGHT 2001 The Townsend Letter Group