jeff posted on December 24, 2011 06:28
Building Forensics has through its international “Linked in” professionals discussion group brought focus onto mould and health issues. The discussion has included a broad spectrum of opinion which has ranged from potentially deadly effects to disbelief of toxicity.
The following edited comment of recognised experts (Prof Denning and Dr Graham Atherton PhD) of the National Aspergillus Centre. The full discussion can be found on a (Linked In) link our web site www.buildingforensics.co.uk
“Moulds commonly cause allergies. Less commonly they can cause sinusitis and contribute to severe asthma. Take a step further and we have an allergic infection referred to as ABPA which is incurable and effects something like 100 000 people across the EU. Finally we have chronic 'erosional' infections (CPA) that we deal with here in Manchester. ALL of these are suffered by people with a normal immune system - I once worked it out to about 1 in 350 people effected in the UK in some way.
So there is a pretty serious health issue here - now the tricky part - are any of these caused by these people living in a mouldy, damp house? The answer is we don't yet know and studies to find out are more often than not inconclusive.
The situation is fairly clear for asthma & allergy but far from conclusive. My approach would be to take it on board that damp building are bad for health, especially children's health - that is pretty generally accepted.
Yes fungi can clearly produce toxins and these can clearly found in damp buildings - note all the while I am specifically referring to damp and not sick buildings. These can clearly get into our bodies via breathing and eating BUT we also very efficiently eliminate these toxins from our bodies every day. There is some suggestion that some toxins can build up in some tissues and are eliminated more slowly but not much. I feel that remediation is justified in most circumstances due to the effect of moulds on asthma & allergy which are in themselves deadly illnesses on occasion.
The situation in the US is that landlords are going to court and stating that there is no evidence that their property is harming the health of their residents and to a large extent they are right - but if residents stated that it was aggravating asthma rather than 'toxicity' it might be a different outcome”
The discussion group is now attempting to attract funds to undertake research into the toxicity of mould and is approaching all stakeholders.
Jeff Charlton
Dec 2011