Re: Respiratory Disease and Correlation with Work-related Exposure (was CRP)

[Guest guest]

I looked at the articles you mentioned and the first is very

interesting. As far as I have been able to gather a central problem

in establishing whether or not mycotoxins cause health problems in

people who living in mouldy environments has been that we cannot

detect and measure the mycotoxin in the body. We know it is all

around in a mouldy building but we cannot detect whether or not it

gets into the body.

This paper is one of the first attempts to do this - it did not work

well but it was a first attempt and will be improved upon if funding

is forthcoming - a very good sign for the future.

Funding is a central problem - AIDS got a lot of publicity and was

able to raise a lot of funding from that. Much intensive research was

paid for by this funding but no cure yet admittedly.

Molds are now getting a lot of attention in the USA (not much

elsewhere that I know of) so one practical thing that could be done

is to start up a mold research fund? The first large payout by a

court was made in the US last week so there may be more - perhaps

these people could be persuaded to contribute?

There is one charity which carries out a lot of funding in the UK

(The Fungal Research Trust at http://www.fungalresearchtrust.org),

but I am not aware of any in the USA?

Graham Atherton

>

> " As a physician who evaluates Sick Buildings and building related

> illness I would be interested in hearing on how your doctors made

> the correlation between PF from mold exposure (circumstances,

> tests, reasoning, literature cites) etc. Was this the result of a

work

> related exposure ? "

>

>

> When you have a chance, read the latest issue of Environmental

Health

> Perspectives (Volume 109, Number 6, June 2001)

> " Bioaerosol Lung Damage in a Worker with Repeated Exposure to Fungi

in a

> Water-Damaged Building "

> Trout,1 Bernstein,2 ez,1

Biagini,3

> and Wallingford1

>

> http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2001/109p641-

644trout/abstract.html

>

> The man who was the focus of the research, Jim Crane, is a member

of this

> group. I'm sure he would also answer questions about this issue

and how his

> doctor(s) made the connection. Jim and his co-workers were the

focus of a

> Business Week cover story " Is Your Office Killing You, " June 5,

2000 you can

> read at http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_23/b3684001.htm

>

> The Job Journal story is also another good one for determining

precisely how

> a doctor makes the connection that an exposure in one's office or

job site

> is causing health effects. Kathy Masera and her co-workers began

coughing

> up blood at the office, so it might have been easier for their

doctor to

> quickly ferret out the problem. I don't believe I've read of a

case of

> toxic mold poisoning where an occupational medicine doctor made the

call -

> but I may be wrong. I have often decried the fact that so many

people

> suffer needless respiratory damage because we assume " bronchitis " or

> whatever, go for treatment with our family doctor and by the time

we learn

> our co-workers are also having problems and put 2 and 2 together -

it is too

> late - permanent damage has been done. In my case, I have a series

of chest

> x-rays from the beginning of my exposure showing the progression of

the

> damage from mold exposure (stachybotrys, aspergillus, penicillum,

etc.) but

> I wasn't referred to a pulmonary specialist for 4 years. By then I

was

> already out of the building and totally disabled. There has to be

a better

> way of catching this earlier when people are sneezing, coughing,

etc.

>

> Barbara