Sick Building Syndrome is a Natural Disaster

[Guest guest]

Focusing on individuals as ultimately responsible, and blaming

building design as automatically culpable without regard to ambient

circumstances ignores the nature of spore propagation and satellite

colonies in the perpetuation of this emerging phenomenon.

Any building subjected to a spore plume of viable conidia is going

to become an opportunity for mold to reproduce whether the building

is constructed well or poorly - at any opportune site that presents

itself.

All buildings have suitable substrate and condensation no matter

how well they are built. Put a perfectly constructed building in the

path of a spore plume and the results are inevitable unless that

building has ABNORMALLY good mechanisms for condensation control or

a total lack of any cellulose substrate at the condensation

interface on exterior walls.

I've spent years listening to hopeful concepts of reducing humidity

in buildings which sound like a logical solution and give the

Appearance of Good Science but are meaningless when the condensation

interface at exterior walls is going to be present no matter how

much the humidity is reduced in the center of the building.

The interface exists even in the driest desert climate - if the air

outside is cold enough.

If suitable substrate, the condensation interface and viable spores

all come together at the same point, the results are unavoidable.

We have seen that an HVAC system subjected to a stream of viable

spores can easily create colonies on bare metal, with only the

organic material and customary condensation to subsist upon.

This cannot be corrected by changing the design.

Placing the blame upon the HVAC doesn't make sense when the basic

materials and function do not support mold growth without the spore

stream.

Blaming the building itself is counterproductive if the basic

materials and design are not normally conducive to mold growth and

only was unfortunate enough to be subjected to a viable plume from

elsewhere.

" Good Design " isn't good enough if the structure is downwind of a

mold colony.

This mold is another " Cell from Hell " like Pfiesteria.

It makes little sense to blame the owner of the lake you were

swimming in when you got sick when the lakeowner himself is being

wiped out and destroyed by ecological circumstances beyond his

control.

The process destroying that lake is pan-ecological and far beyond

the ability and means of an idividual or property owner to correct.

Society has been slow to identify the scope of this phenomenon just

as it has with other comparable biotoxin scourges - only looking at

the most noticeable effects and not the source.

Sick Building Syndrome is not a matter of bad building design.

It is a Natural Disaster.

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