Re: Got slammed by the Mycotoxin Gradient

[Guest guest]

>

> , but people tell you to suspect mold if you

> room is musty or stinky and there has been water

> leak, even if now fixed. I know there can be

> VOCs in an unvented bathroom that someone just

> vacated, but I mean a room that noone lives in

> smelling musty. Wouldn't one assume then mold

> colony and if mold colony, wouldn't they

> undoubtedly have emitted spores that would

> produce mycotoxins.

> For mycotoxins without VOC odor, wouldn't that be

> when wind picks up mycotoxins and carry them away

> from colony, then they are airbourne mycotoxins

> without any associated VOCs? ...your term, a

> mold plume, which could also be called a

> mycotoxic plume

>

I only started to take control of this illness when I learned to

ignore concepts that didnt' fit the facts.

Lots of musty places don't bother me at all.

Lots' of places that aren't musty will kill me.

So I go by perception alone - not by odor.

Gosh, this gets picky, but once the spores have departed the mVOC

producing colony, about all they possess is secondary metabolites,

since they are actively breaking down substrate.

The only problem with calling a spore plume that is emitting these

metabolites a " mycotoxin plume " is that toxins emitted by the spores

mix with the air and dissipate before going far enough to be

called " a plume " .

So I call the mixed air/toxin distance from spore accumulations

that still gives " hits " : " The Mycotoxin Gradient " .

My green binoculars should have not been emitting any spores,

considering that I washed them off underwater in a prisine area.

But I could still feel the adsorbed toxins at about a eighteen

inches - even outside in the wind. The closer they got the worse it

felt. Changing the proximity reveals that the " toxin gradient " is a

fixed value according to air dilution dictated by distance.

So if the mycotoxins are still associated with spore movement, I

call it a spore plume. If the mycotoxins are not associated with

spores, either by having " left the equation " from decomposition or

removal, and its just the toxins that are left, I call the residual

toxic effect " The Mycotoxin Gradient " to differentiate it from spore

plumes which contain mycotoxins.

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[Guest guest]

I meant to say that wafting spores AREN'T busy feeding on substrate,

and producing mVOC's like the colony is.

Spores just drift around, armed with their antimicrobial defensive

toxins.

And I'm sure that somebody will point out that decomposing areas of

mustiness can also contain aerosolized bacterial endotoxins which can

be very nasty.

I'm not saying that mustiness should be ignored, just that it's not a

reliable indicator for the mycotoxins that really make my life

miserable.

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