Content area
Full text
Climate change signifies unexpected weather in many if not most areas of the planet. Over the last several years, there have been a number of floods and hurricanes in Louisiana, Texas, the Gulf Coast, New York, and in other parts of the world. The danger lies not only in the immediate disastrous and damaging effects, but also in the health hazards from mold infested homes, schools, businesses, and public buildings.1
Molds grow on wet surfaces and sporulate. They produce spores of different colors. For example, the famous black spores are produced by the mold Stachybotrys, red spores by Aspergillus, Rhodotorula, and Fusarium, grey spores by Botrytis, and blue-green spores by Penicillium.2 Molds can grow on dry wall, attics, basements, underside of carpeting, ventilation ducts, and crawl spaces among others.3
Testing of an indoor space for airborne mold spores reveals what is present at the time of the testing, not 24/7, and can vary hour by hour depending on the activity in the room. It does not divulge any hidden mold, such as those in wall cavities, attics, in ventilation ducts, and others. It is important to note that the Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) cautions that 50% of fungal growth can be hidden, meaning hidden from sight.3
Diseases caused by fungi are called mycoses, and fortunately, they are not a communicable disease.4 Mycoses have increased substantially over the last 4 decades as a result of the AIDS pandemic and the advent of chemotherapy, transplantation, immunosuppression, access to the vascular system, as well as climate change as mentioned above.2
Children have been increasingly affected as well. A study from Harvard University looked at 13 369 children aged 8 to 12 years old in 24 different communities throughout North America and found that there was mold growth in 22% to 54% in the households in 5 communities with asthma symptoms in 3 to 11% of the children.5 Another study from Russia on 5951 children in 9 cities with water damage and molds in the home demonstrated a positive association with asthma, dry cough, wheezing, and bronchitis.6
In a study conducted in Poland on 277 infants born at term and exposed to molds for 2 or more years in mold contaminated homes, there was a deficit in intelligence quotient...