newspaper article

[Guest guest]

In today's Dallas Morning News, August 30, 2002, the Metropolitan section, was an article by Steve Blow calling the toxic mold epidemic "hysteria". He claims that the whole thing is a money making scheme. He cites a July 14 column by Dr. Gailen Marshall, director of the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the University of Texas at Houston Medical School.

"What do these things have in common: wine, penicillan, cheese, beer and mushrooms? Can't guess? Here's a big hint: It also isthe latest dubious health scare costing Texas consumers millions of dollars in higher insurance premiums and needless home 'health' testing, and it is being used as a get rich quick scheme for some personal injury lawyers. Ah, now you know. It is called mold."

Then Steve Blow goes on to compare the mold problem with 'crop circles, satanic cults, harmonic convergence and other forms of silliness that sometimes overtake us.' Then he writes that if mold were deadly, our shower curtains would have killed us long ago. He says that a little bleach and water will solve the whole problem and further states that money is pushing the mold frenzy.

This whole article is very disturbing to me because obviously Steve Blow doesn't understand that there is a huge difference between simple black mold that stains tile and shower curtains and the kind of mold that lurks unseen behind walls and in ceilings and pervades air conditioning ducts. I wish he would volunteer to come on over and live in my home for a year wherein he will contract asthma, allergies, emphysema, toxic encephalopathy, rashes, nose bleeds and start to fear for his life. Steve Blow's e-mail address is

sblow@... if anyone wants to e-mail him and rebut his insensitive article. He also needs to know that most mainstream physicians are not at all up to speed on mold exposure and the resulting health issues and are therefore completely unqualified to even comment on mold illness......Betsy

[Guest guest]

Hi folks:

Regarding Hugh 's kind request for interview input, might I

suggest that anyone who decides to take him up on it requires,

upfront, as a condition of cooperation, a written guarantee (by email

is fine) that they will see the final text before it is published,

and will be able to delete passages they believe do not represent

what was said, or are not an accurate reflection of caloric

restriction?

The reason for this is so that the interviewee can correct any errors

or gross distortions that may have crept into the text from editors

who, at some media outlets, are much more interested in dramatic

headlines or spectacular or ridiculous claims that were never made,

than they are are in providing accurate information.

Some journalists, from my own personal experience, know what they are

going to say before interviewing anyone. Then attach the

interviewee's name to the story they had been determined to tell at

the outset, whether it accords with what was said or not.

I have no reason to believe the Sunday Express would indulge in such

conduct. But it is many decades since I last read it. And we do

know many people in the news business do engage in such tactics.

Rodney.

> Hi,

> I'm sorry to hijack your normal discussions, but I'm looking for

> some help. I'm writing an article about calorie restriction for a

> newspaper supplement here in the UK (the Sunday Express) and am

> looking for a case study. To match the profile of our reasers, the

> case study needs to be female, based in the UK, and in their late

> 40s or 50s.

>

> If anyone fits this description and is happy to be interviewed on

> their CR lifestyle (why you started it, how easy it is to follow,

> what sort of difference it has made to your life etc), please

> contact me at hughawilson@y... for more details.

>

> Many thanks for your time.

> Kind regards,

> Hugh