Posted on Wed, Jan. 28, 2004 Anxiety spreads about the mold in schools, homes By Dawn Fallik Philadelphia Inquirer PHILADELPHIA - Call it the creeping crud, the green horror, the spores from hell. Call it mold. Mold has been around for billions of years, living off damp surfaces, wafting its spores aloft and breaking down organic material. Such a simple thing, causing such an uproar. Mold has been especially prevalent in the Northeast recently because of a wet spring, summer and fall. Nationally, mold has cost millions of dollars in clean-up efforts and widespread anxiety over health concerns. A 2003 report from a Chicago law firm found that mold-related lawsuits increased 300 percent since 1999. Mold has even invaded Congress: A "Toxic Mold Safety and Protection" bill, which would create a national insurance program for homeowners and "educate the public about the dangers of toxic mold," awaits a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill targets molds that emit toxins, while most spores cause only allergy problems. But experts say mold shouldn't become the stuff of mythic horror. "Mold has always been there and it's always been a bad situation," said Mike Berry, former EPA manager of indoor air research, adding that many problems can be prevented by simply stopping leaks early. "We told Congress to start a research program for mold back in the early '80s." Health problems, including headaches, eye irritation and wheezing, can result from allergies to the spores that mold releases in order to spread and reproduce. Some molds, particularly the Stachybotrys chartarum, a black-green mold, produce mycotoxin, which has been linked by the Centers for Disease Control to a "very few case reports" of pulmonary hemorrhage or memory loss. Mold can be a problem for homeowners and school districts alike. "Every time it rains I cringe," said Spring-Ford Superintendent Genevieve Coale, who said the Montgomery County, Pa., school district has spent about $400,000 in the last four years on testing for the presence of mold. Although some parents have been concerned that their children's health problems are due to mold in the schools, Coale said no repairs were required. "My kids now have asthma and they never did before going to the intermediate school," said Barbara Hagan, whose children attend Spring-Ford Intermediate School. Hagan is suing the school district to pay $160 a month for her children's medical costs. Schools in particular have been hard hit, because flat roofs and aging buildings - some without air-conditioning - are mold environments waiting to happen. Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J., is spending $500,000 to renovate 68 rooms in a student apartment complex where air conditioners leaked, causing mold problems in some of the rooms' closets. Pennsylvania's Neshaminy School District spent $4,000 to clean several hundred library books, after a summer of being locked in a humid library caused the pages to deteriorate. Lower Pottsgrove Elementary School in Lower Pottsgrove, Pa., spent $600,000 to clean up mold before giving up completely and moving its students to the middle school last spring and then to another building this year. "We consider it one of the top public health problems for schools in the country," said Eugene Cole, professor of health science at Brigham Young University in Utah. "When budgets are cut, the first thing to go is maintenance and janitorial staff, and you start ignoring musty odors that indicate you have a problem." But mold is more than a school problem - it can also be a source of trouble for homeowners and apartment dwellers. Suzanne Sheahen of Haddonfield, N.J., said she fled her apartment in December after mold appeared on her ceiling tiles. "The roof leaked, and the ceiling started to collapse in places and I could see the black in there," she said. Suddenly, the health problems she'd had made sense, she said. "I'd been short of breath and had numbness in my fingers and rashes all over my body," she said. "For the past two years, they (doctors) haven't been able to find anything wrong, but they're all symptoms of black mold." Guy Elzey III, a representative for Kings Road Associates L.L.C., which owns the building, said that the mold was cleaned up and the apartment passed a health department inspection. Elzey says he believes Sheahen may have contributed to the mold growth by splashing water on the ceiling. "Mold is really not the whole point of the matter; it's more of a landlord-tenant issue," he said. While stories about toxic mold abound, scientists such as Berry say they are exaggerated. "Stachybotrys has been accused of having fatal effects, but there's been no proven association," he said. Breathing mold is much less dangerous than eating moldy food, he said. The problem is, there's no escaping mold spores, although most are easily killed using a little bleach and water. Scientists say it's impossible to create an indoor air-quality standard to measure an acceptable amount of mold in the air. There are thousands of different kinds of mold, and different people react to different levels differently. Mold-removal experts say they've seen a huge increase in calls recently, particularly after last summer's rains. "I received about 300 calls this (season) regarding mold, and I usually get about 50," said Ed Knoor, owner of Quality Environment in Williamstown, Pa. "They'll call because they see mold and they'll notice a smell, or they've been sick and they think it's mold-related. "Sometimes mold is present, but sometimes a little mold problem creates a big psychological issue - someone sneezes and it becomes a mold sneeze."
		Home    ::    About PRO-LAB    ::    Products    ::    Contact Us