Expert explains Katrina biohazard

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Expert explains Katrina biohazard

Steifel/Contributing Writer

Issue date: 10/23/06 Section: University

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The Daily Targum Sun, 22 Oct 2006 9:23 PM PDT

Media Credit: Will Schneekloth/ Associate Photography Editor

Microbiologist, Joan , lectured on the health risks

associated with mold at " A Mycologist Looks at Katrina, " a

presentation in the Alampi Room at the Institute of Marine and

Coastal Sciences on Thursday.

After Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast last year, thousands

of houses were ravaged by mold.

But Joan , an associate vice president at the University and

a mycologist, was one of few residents who could identify the type

of mold had ravaged her home of 37 years in New Orleans' Broadmoor

neighborhood.

delivered a presentation entitled, " A Mycologist Looks at

Katrina, " Thursday afternoon at the Institute for Marine and Coastal

Sciences.

Mycology is the study of fungus.

, a former president of the American Society for Microbiology

and a former microbiologist at Tulane University, spoke during her

presentation about her experience during the disaster and the mold

that damaged her house. She also offered her predictions for the

future of New Orleans.

After Katrina swept through, said she found herself stranded

in a blowndown forest without electricity for three days.

On Aug. 28, 2005, she evacuated the city - just as 80 percent of its

population did by the following day. She headed over 40 miles north

with her husband, dog and cats to the village of Bush near the

Mississippi state line.

When returned to her house in Broadmoor, the ground floor

had been flooded and massive colonies of Trichoderma harzianum and

Aspergillus molds had taken hold on nearly every surface. Furniture,

Turkish rugs, books and antiques were destroyed, and a ghastly

stench filled the air. Trichoderma harzianum turned out to be the

most common species of mold in her house - rather than the

Aspergillus in which she specialized.

In 's opinion, the mold problem was a bigger biohazard than

the " toxic sludge " - commonly mentioned in reports from the city.

" Although, admittedly, I have a skewed attitude, " Bennet said.

explained the potentially fatal effect of Aspergillus on

people with weak immune systems.

She said she felt the " Katrina Cough, " an upper-respiratory

infection that afflicted residents of New Orleans returning to their

homes after the hurricane, and general diseases resulting from

fungus poisoning, be given as much attention as the anthrax scare

that occurred in the weeks following the attacks on Sept. 11.

The residence in which she lived while she recovered her second-

story possessions, threw out her mold-encrusted belongings, had the

water damage repaired and reorganized her life, was a deserted

apartment building owned by her ex-husband. Between the flood and

the present time, she made four trips back there - finally selling

the restored Broadmoor house and moving into a home near Landing

Lane.

contrasted pictures of the sophisticated measures taken by

the Dutch, British and Italians to protect their vulnerable cities

from flooding, with a photo of a small concrete barrier put in place

to defend part of New Orleans.

Her predictions for New Orleans' future included a smaller, more

heavily Hispanic population and a lack of advances on the wetlands

restoration that she said could protect the city. She predicted new

mold research, but said she did not expect much material progress.