Mold Biology And Mold Related Heath Issues

[Daryl Watters]

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Article Title:
Mold Biology And Mold Related Heath Issues

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Article Description:
Questions about mold biology and mold related health issues
or toxic mold and black mold problems? Need an indoor air
quality or IAQ testing information because of sick building
syndrome, building related illness, or toxic black mold?


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Distribution Date and Time: 2009-12-15 10:00:00

Written By: Daryl Watters
Copyright: 2009
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Mold Biology And Mold Related Heath Issues
Copyright (c) 2009 Daryl Watters
A Accredited Mold Inspection Service, Inc.
http://www.floridamoldinspectors.us/



BASIC MOLD BIOLOGY:

Fungi share some basic similarities with plants and bacteria but
are not plants nor are they bacteria. They are in their own
kingdom, the Fungi Kingdom.

The terms mold and mildew are often used interchangeably by lay
persons, but according to some more specific definitions, mildew
is a powdery growth that attacks and grows on living plants while
molds are often fuzzy and grow on all sorts of moist surfaces.
For some people the term mildew is used to describe powdery
fungal growth that grows on personal belongings and can be easily
wiped off. Molds, mildews, and other fungi usually reproduce by
forming and releasing spores into the air. Most indoor spores are
just 3 to 15 microns across, some spores are a few hundred
microns long but these are still just a few microns across. The
human eye can at best see objects that are 10 or more microns
across. Toxins known as mycotoxins and also allergens are found
primarily in the spores of various molds. These substances can be
found in live or dead spores.

TOXIC MOLDS

Mycotoxins are chemicals that are sometimes produced by various
species of toxic mold. These toxins are real and are powerful
weapons used by toxic molds in a sort of microbial warfare to
help them compete against bacteria and other molds. Various molds
including but not limited to toxic black mold also known as
Stachybotrys or toxic mold are common in Florida, but mold spores
in residential settings, even if they are potentially toxic
producing types and at high levels, are not automatically at high
enough levels to result in toxic effects on humans via
inhalation. It takes a lot of inhaled spores to poison a person.
Currently, disagreement exists as to if residential mold spore
exposures levels are ever high enough to result in toxic effect
on humans. Toxic effects of mold mycotoxins in humans and farm
animals leading to serious illness and even death via accidental
ingestion of toxic mold, etc. have been well documented in
scientific literature. Effects of heavy exposure to mold toxins
are many, but just two of the more common effects are immuno
suppression and liver cancer. Mycotoxins are believed to result
in headaches, sore throats, hair loss, flu symptoms, diarrhea,
fatigue, dermatitis, general malaise (tiredness) and
psychological depression." (Croft et al, 1986, Jarvis, 1995).
"Other reported responses to mycotoxin exposure includes skin
rashes, lesions of the skin and gastrointestinal tract, and
interference with blood cell formation." (Sorenson 1993).

Human and horse exposure to Stachybotrys mold infested hay that
caused toxic reactions in the Ukraine around the 1920's or the
1930's is well documented. Industrial level exposures of
mycotoxins such as at peanut processing facilities, composting
facilities, or farms has caused documented toxigenic and severe
allergenic problems. Countless farm animals have died as a result
of eating food contaminated with toxic molds, in one extreme
example that occurred in the mid 1960's 100,000 turkeys died in
England after consuming moldy food shipped from Brazil. The
causative agent was aflotoxin from Aspergillus flavus mold. In
several such cases of human and animal exposure mycotoxin
poisoning is well documented by scientists and doctors. For more
information on documented cases and on mycotoxocosis refer to The
Fifth Kingdom, by Brice Kindrick or Bioaerosols from ACGIH by
Harriett Burge.

It is very important to not panic but to keep in mind that to
accomplish the above serious detrimental effects, toxic molds
like Stachybotrys and others may have to be either:

1. Consumed in mold contaminated foods,

2. Physically handled so that excessive physical contact is made
between human skin and the mold, or

3. The mycotoxins have to be exposed to living cells in the
laboratory.

Various studies have shown that the levels of mycotoxins
encountered by breathing mold spores in your home or office
appear to be far too low to cause toxic reactions in humans. Of
course future studies may or may not change this current opinion
held by many researches. Synergistic effects of various indoor
pollutants and different mycotoxins mixing together may be more
powerful than individual mycotoxin exposures. Fortunately
scientists are not in the business of performing full fledged
toxicity studies on human subjects.

However, asthma attacks, allergies, and sinus infections from
mold appear to be very common and can give you just as much
trouble as if you were being poisoned.

INFECTIOUS MOLDS

According to a Mayo clinic study, sinusitis caused by growth of
fungus fibers or balls of fungus fibers in the sinus cavities is
not unusual. This is typically caused by common Aspergillus,
Fusarium, and Curvularia species. Aspergillosis caused by the
growth of aspergillus species in the lungs most commonly
A.fumigatus, A. flavus, A. Niger and A. territus species
typically occurs in persons with compromised immune systems or a
history of lung disease that resulted in past lung damage. Common
Candida albicans that causes yeast infections is a major cause of
serious nosocomial (hospital acquired) fungal infections.
Histoplasma capsulatium and Cryptococcus neoformans are very
dangerous yeast like molds that should be assumed to be present
in any bird droppings but are primarily a concern when spread to
humans via inhalation of particles from accumulations of pigeon,
starling, and bat droppings. Coccidioides immitis mold spores are
spread from dusty soil in the southwestern United States, it
sometimes causes valley fever but at other times the same fungus
can be deadly. Nearly any fungi can cause infections in persons
with severely compromised immune systems.

Detection of infectious fungi such as but not limited to the
above listed ones and identification of fungi to determine the
species is not part of most mold inspections.

ALLERGY ASTHMA AND HYPERSENSITIVITY DISEASES

An allergic reaction occurs when your body's immune system
mistakes harmless proteins in mold spores or other allergens as
if these proteins were harmful microbes trying to infect your
body. Your body's immune system, feeling threatened releases
histamines into the blood stream and these histamines are what
actually causes coughing, sneeze, and watering of the eyes. Other
person's immune systems will not mistake proteins in mold spores
as a microbial threat, and thus not develop allergic reactions.
Asthma is a condition where the small air sack like structures in
the lungs called alveoli can contract and exhale air, but cannot
properly expand to bring in new air. Molds as well as other
substances are common triggers of asthma. Mold-related allergenic
and asthmatic conditions in homes are very common and very
serious and should be addressed and not ignored. Many serious
hypersensitivity diseases in humans, such as baker's lung, wood
workers lung and others are the result of exposures to molds by
persons working in industries that result in long term exposure
to elevated spore levels.

Hypersensitivity diseases have long been well documented in
science and the medical field. According to Bioaerosols
assessment and control hypersensitivity pneumonitis is a
hypersensitivity disease that results from the long term repeated
exposure to elevated mold spore levels or other antigens, this
condition can occur at in industry or agriculture where spore
levels are high, it may also occur in moldy offices or homes, it
produces pneumonia like symptoms with fever, cough, tightness of
chest, lung infiltrates, and difficulty breathing. Once
sensitized, individuals may react to extremely low, often un
measurable, concentrations of antigenic materials.

Organic dust toxic syndrome is a flu like illness that results
from a short term exposure to very high levels of spores, such as
the levels that may be encountered by workers doing large mold
remediation jobs without wearing protective respirators. Symptoms
show up several hours or a day or so after exposure and symptoms
go away after a day or a few days. Building related illness is a
term used to describe an illness such as one of the above that
results from time spent in a building around molds or other
allergens, irritants, or toxins, and sick building syndrome is
used to describe a building related illness whose specific cause
remains a mystery.




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Daryl Watters is a certified mold inspector, certified home
inspector, and certified indoor environmentalist providing
building inspections, mold testing and indoor air quality
testing from Vero Beach to the Florida Keys. For mold and air
quality testing information: http://www.floridamoldinspectors.us/
http://www.florida-mold-inspection.com/


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