Moldy Claims Introduction

 Introduction


Mold is familiar to all of us in the form of growths on our bathroom tile or as fuzzy patches in food containers lost in the backs of our refrigerators. In more general terms, molds are fungi. Like plants and animals, fungi comprise one of the “Kingdoms” of living organisms on Earth. Mushrooms in our garden salad are another familiar fungus. The fungi play an essential role in the cycle of life as the principal decomposers of organic matter, converting dead organic material into simpler chemical forms that can in turn be used by plants for their growth and nutritional needs. Without fungi performing this essential function, plant and animal debris would simply accumulate. Although we tend to notice fungi only rarely, as when mushrooms sprout in our lawn or mold appears unwanted on stale bread, fungi are always with us.

When mold is visible to our eye, most of what we see are the reproductive structures of the mold colony. Mold grows as tiny, hair like filaments called “hyphae” that are not individually visible to the naked eye. An intertwining mass of hyphae, called the “mycelium,” comprises the bulk of a fungal colony but may not be visible if it is growing beneath the surface. At an appropriate stage of maturity and when environmental conditions are right, the mycelium bears specialized reproductive structures that rise above the surface to produce and release spores. Like hyphae, individual spores are not visible to the naked eye. Air currents and other disturbances carry the spores away from the colony and they eventually settle onto a surface. If that surface provides conditions suitable for growth, the spore can give rise to a new mold colony. Even in the cleanest environments, the air we breathe inevitably contains mold spores.

Mold affects human health in three ways: allergic reactions, infections and toxic, or poisonous, effects. Each of these involves fundamentally different biological processes but some symptoms and health complaints may be similar for allergic, infectious and toxic processes.

Therefore, when making a diagnosis the medical professional must first take care to establish that mold, rather than some other factor, plays a role in the patient's condition. If mold is involved, then it must be determined whether the patient's symptoms are allergic, infectious, or toxic in origin.

This paper examines in some depth each type of health complaint by surveying the extensive scientific literature. It determines that mold can be an allergen for atopic individuals; that infections caused by mold are rare, save for immune-compromised individuals; and that there is no sound scientific evidence that mold causes “toxicity” in doses found in indoor home environments.

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