What are MVOCs?

[Guest guest]

Sharon

MVOCs are generally thought of as “microbial” volatile organic chemicals. All biological organisms emit both volatile and non-volatile chemicals. If you ate a bean burrito, you in turn will emit volatile chemicals that are representative of the meal you ate; some of which are odorous (e.g., hydrogen sulfide) and others are not (e.g., methane), both of which are volatile organic chemicals - VOCs. Bacteria and fungi do the same, i.e., they emit volatile chemicals (as well as non-volatile chemicals with a vapor pressure is greater than 1-atm at STP) that are representative of what they are consuming. Since they fuungi and bacteria are microorganisms, the volatile chemicals they emit are termed: MVOCs. Take yeasts for example. They emit alcohols, esters and aldehydes; which are classes of chemical compounds. Smell the beer, and the pleasant aroma represents a combination of MVOCs that includes ethanol alcohol – good stuff, depending on your point of view. Smell the blue cheese, and the pleasant aroma (to some) is from penicillin fungi. (I personally think most cheese smells like rotten milk! And most of it tastes mighty fine too.) Smell a home in New Orleans with water damage and the odors you detect are primarily MVOCs – alcohols, esters, ketones, aldehydes, aliphatics, etc. They are all chemicals emitted from the “digestion” of substrates in the home by bacteria and fungi. Not a pleasant smell to most. Even insects emit volatile organic chemicals: I-VOCs. Animals emit VOCs: A-VOCs. Plants emit VOCs: P-VOCs. Smell the rose, and you smell the pleasant aroma of esters and alcohols. I’m actually playing on the term VOCs here, but I hope you get what I mean. MVOCs is nothing more than volatile chemicals emitted from microorganisms – the “M” of MVOCs. Moreover, the type, combination, and concentration of VOCs emitted by an organism is a function of the organism and, more often than not, what it is eating/digesting – recall the burrito example. For what it is worth....

--

Geyer, PE, CIH, CSP

President

KENTEC Industries, Inc.

Bakersfield, California

www.kerntecindustries.com

Hi Steve,

I would have to disagree with some (not all) of your assessment of the situation.

The word " mycotoxin " is a technical term with a very specific meaning, and applies to only a small fraction of the substances a mold releases into the environment.

True.

I think it hurts our credibility as sensitized people to use the word " mycotoxin " to refer to any non contact means of mold affecting human metabolism. This is the tables-turned version of physician-allergists using the term " allergy " very narrowly to mean an IgE mediated reaction while most patients use it broadly to mean any environmentally triggered negative impact on a person.

This is where I disagree. I don't believe it hurts one's credibility to acknowledge that the mycotoxins themselves are the root cause of much ill health. Are there other aspects such as MVOC's, pet dander, bacteria, cockroaches, Glade, etc that contribute to an unhealthly indoor air quality? Of course. Can these other unhealthy contributors cause allergic, immunologic and infection symptoms? Of course. But these facts do not discount the ill health effects caused by the molds and mycotoxins themselves.

To go out on a limb, during the time 5-10 years ago when my family was learning to cope with the seemingly unique MCS variant we developed from living in our " sick house " , I concluded that our mold reaction could be to mVOCs, but more likely was to the dispersal of water-soluble substances secreted by the mold to digest its environment, by the drying of the moisture into which they had been secreted. The literature at the time seemed amazingly to contain no information on the chemistry of this basic biological process.

Maybe I am just not clear on the meaning of MVOC. What exactly are the components that make up MVOC's? I always thought that term meant a volitile combination of various microbes such as fungi, bacteria and viruses - that when mixed together create a compound that may cause ill health. >From your definition, it appears to me that you are defining MVOC's as a byproduct of only mold.

We'll find the answers to these sensitivities -- which quite frankly cannot occur if one assumes the basic science underlying the practice of medicine today is correct -- by finding the place where established science is treating an approximation as an absolute truth, incorrectly.

True. And what makes me of the opinion that molds and mycotoxins are the root cause of the serious illnesses are:

1. It is well documented that molds can elicit these symptoms. (HP - farmers, ABPA, CFS)

2. It is well documented that mycotoxins can elicit these symptoms.(Blastamycosis)

3. People become better when treated with antifungals and/or mycotoxin eliminating measures.

4. Antibiotics sometimes actually increase the symptoms of illness - because when one kills bacteria that keep fungi in check, the fungi love it and flourish.

But again, maybe I am just not understanding your definition of MVOC's. Would antifungals and antitoxins (new word) also kill MVOC's?

Making a statement which is obviously technically incorrect will get us not just ignored, but ridiculed by science. What we are looking for is the objective, easily and cheaply reproduced, smoking gun experiment proving something about our condition that contradicts accepted fact/assumption.

I would have to completely disagree with this statement. It looks like an oxymoron to me: " proving something about our condition that contradicts accepted fact/assumption " I would argue that much more is known about illnesses caused specifically by molds and mycotoxins than what is known about illnesses caused by MVOC's.

Even if in fact, MVOC's may cause illness, there is vastly much more known about illnesses from the molds and the mycotoxins themselves. And effective treatment protocols specifically designed to deter symptoms for these two specific entities has proven itself time and time again to be effective.

While one can say illnesses may also be caused by pets, roaches, Glade, gas, lead, TCE, Chromium 6, MVOC's, etc. One cannot say that the mold and mycotoxins are not the specific root cause of many illnesses. Based on what I know anecdotally of those who have gotten better with treatment, I would argue that mold and mycotoxins are indeed the primary root of severe illness after exposure to a water damaged, moldie building.

So what exactly is the definition of MVOC? What are the components of the compound?

Sharon

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