Subject: household molds (Was: Allergy lights)
From: "jjh"
To: Vocalist
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

Hello Laura and all:

On Mon, 6 Dec, Laura Sharp wrote:

>A friend of mine (a wonderful alto) just canceled the first of two Messiah
>gigs because her mold allergies settled right in her throat... Is anyone
>familiar with these and their effect?

A sort of frightening article about household molds appeared in this
Sunday's "USA Weekend" magazine (it was the cover story). The article
focuses on a specific type of mold, Stachybotrys atra. The article
states that this type of mold produces airborne toxins, AKA mycotoxins,
that can cause "serious breathing difficulties, memory and hearing loss,
dizziness, flulike symptoms, and bleeding in the lungs." The article gives
more specific information, including how to mold-proof your home, and
information on testing (it appears to be very expensive to test for). You
can find the text for this article on the USA Weekend website :

http://www.usaweekend.com/99_issues/991205/991205mold.html

I have allergies and asthma, have been tested for mold allergies (my test
result--4 out of 4, meaning I'm Very allergic to mold). But I had never
heard of this type of mold before, or heard of the extreme symptoms that
this particular type of mold can cause. Perhaps our MD colleagues on the
list (Dr. Schweinfurth?) can enlighten us on the subject. Is this
information on the up-and up? If it is, then it seems reactions to some
molds can be far more debilitating than I ever suspected!

Jana
--
Jana Holzmeier
Dept. of Music
Nebraska Wesleyan University
5000 Saint Paul Ave.
Lincoln, NE 68504
jjh-at-nebrwesleyan.edu
402-465-2284