Attack of the toxic mold

Take action against mold, a billion dollar problem that can cause serious illness and even death

By: Ron Chepesiuk

  The houses in the Victoria Village subdivision of Port Perry, Ontario, may be young, but their owners know something is terribly wrong with their investments. A black rot eats away the posts holding up the porches, while the paint on many houses peels and crumbles, inside and out. The presence of toxic mold, though, is the most serious problem. Worried residents know that the dangerous fungus can lead to a number of illnesses, including asthma, nausea, migraines, respiratory illnesses... And even death.
  "We've had to buy new mattresses," residents Kathy McIntosh, told the press. "Anything that was in there (her house) had to be condemned." McIntosh has joined fellow residents in a $5 million lawsuit against the developer and the township of Scugog. The lawsuit alleges negligence, misrepresentation and breach of contract on the developer's part and claims the township failed to carry out proper inspections and ensure that the developer was meeting all the building codes.
 

The toxic fungus Stachybotrys Chartarum grows especially well on water-damaged sheet rock. From healthandenergy.com.

  The Port Perry lawsuit is one of several such recent lawsuits in the U.S. and Canada. In one Toronto suburb, for example, parents who say their children have been ill from toxic mold have launched a $1 billion suit against the Peel Region Separate School Board. Meanwhile, leaky condos in Vancouver have affected a huge population and sparked a provincial inquiry. "The damage has been assessed at $1 billion in repair costs for houses built since 1986," revealed Dr. John Straube, a professor at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, who serves as a consultant on the toxic mold problem.
  Experts predict Canadians and Americans will be hearing a lot about incidents of toxic mold in the coming years. The Ottawa-based Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) warns in a pamphlet published at its web site that "if you live in a damp house, or have ever experienced flooding, your house may be breeding an often invisible and always unwelcome intruder - mold."
  Ken Ruest, Senior Researcher with the CMHC points out that, "a lot of people are unaware there's a toxic mold problem until their house is so badly affected they can't live in it anymore."
 

Forty-five cases of a disease called Pulmonary Hemorrhage, caused by mold, have been reported during the past seven years in Cleveland, Ohio. The disease causes young infants' lungs to bleed and makes them cough up blood. Sixteen of the infants have died.

  Mold can grow only in damp conditions and on, and in, anything in a house. It's most commonly found in kitchens, bathrooms and basements. As the CMHC reports, "Even if the air in the house is generally dry, (mold) can flourish in the damp local climates found in many Canadian homes." One of the most dangerous toxic molds is Stachybotrys, an unusual fungus that has closed portable classrooms and entire school buildings in and around Toronto. Stachybotrys looks black and slimy when wet and grows only on wood and paper that has stayed wet for more than a few days.
  In some North American cities, the fungus has caused serious health problems. For instance, forty-five cases of a disease known as Pulmonary Hemorrhage (PH) have been reported during the past seven years in the eastern neighborhoods of Cleveland, Ohio. The disease causes the young infants' lungs to bleed and makes them cough up blood. Sixteen of the infants have died. A 1944 study by the Centers for Disease Control found a connection of PH in instances where infants were living in water-damaged houses containing Stachybotrys.
  A team of researchers at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland has studied the local outbreak and in a report concluded, "the spores of this fungus (Stachybotrys) contains very potent mycotoxins, which appear to be particularly toxic to the rapidly growing young lungs of young infants." With incidents of toxic mold growing, concerned officials have begun to deal with the problem. Ontario's Building Envelope Council, which seeks to promote better construction, has declared zero tolerance for toxic mold within the housing industry and has publicly stated that the appearance of mold can easily be prevented and removed simply by removing moisture.
  Straube agreed. "Research shows that all mold-related problems in the housing construction industry appear to have a moisture-related component to them," he explained.
  In the mid 1990s Canadian architect Philip Sharp was commissioned to design affordable housing for so called environmentally hypersensitive people (EHP). Among other features, potential sources of dust and mold in the houses were eliminated and extractor fans installed to minimize mold and other irritants.
  "Building houses for EHS people is a trend," Straube revealed. "Those types of houses are a little more expensive because the choice of building materials is restricted, but they are feasible."
  The CMHC, meanwhile, has launched a "Healthy Housing Initiative" that provides guidelines on how to build healthier houses that have less of an environmental impact. "The toxic mold problem can be controlled, if the Canadian housing industry is a little more careful in how it builds houses," Ruest said.
  Concerns over toxic mold problem highlight the rise of indoor air pollution as a serious public health issue in North America. Comparative risk studies conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its Science Advisory Board have consistently ranked indoor air pollution among the top five environmental risks to public health.
  "The scientific community is working hard to understand the problem and to help people reduce their risks to air pollutants," Straube said.

A native of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Ron Chepesiuk's articles on the environment have appeared in E: The Environmental Magazine, Wildlife Conservation, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, and The Rotarian. He is a contributing writer to Environmental Health Perspectives, the publication of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Get More/Do More
For more information on toxic mold, visit the Pulmonary Hemorrhage and Hemosiderosis in Infants website of Case Western Reserve University and Rainbow Babies' and Children's Hospital at gcrc.meds.cwru.edu/stachy/ default.htm.

Visit the website of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation at www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/cmhc.html.

 

Seven ways to protect yourself against toxic mold Look for mold and identify suspected patches with a drop of chlorine bleach. If the color changes or disappears, the patch is probably mold. Keep all material in your house as dry and clean as possible. This means regularly cleaning, then drying, all surfaces where moisture often collects in the house. Keep your home well-ventilated and relative humidity between 30 and 50 percent. If you find mold in your house, use chlorine bleach to kill it. Be sure to open windows, wear protective gloves and a face mask with a filter when using chlorine bleach. Throw out anything that has been wet for days or damp for weeks. This applies especially to moldy carpets, which can trap more mold than any other material. Avoid vigorous vacuuming. This well-intentioned house cleaning procedure increases exposure to mold spores, which can pass through vacuum filters and remain suspended in the air for hours and perhaps days.

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