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Mixing--and separating--mold and myth: experts say it''s hard to find scientific facts to support claims of some mold-related health hazards. (Mold: Property/Casualty).

Article Excerpt
Melinda Ballard became a champion of policyholder rights after a Texas jury awarded her $32 million against Farmers Insurance Group for mishandling her family's mold claims. Erin Brock-ovich, the subject of a hit movie for her legal fight against a major utility company, testified before a California state Senate committee that her mold-infested home led to family health problems. And television personality Ed McMahon sued his homeowners insurer for more than $20 million, claiming the insurance company failed to remediate a water-damage claim correctly and the subsequent exposure to mold led to his beloved dog's death.

These and other developments have helped generate public concern--and a considerable body of myths--about the health risks of exposure to mold. And dispelling these myths with the firm facts of science doesn't come as easily as experts might wish.

On one hand, researchers know that harm can come from ingesting large amounts of mold in food or by inhaling high levels of mycotoxins--the toxins produced by a fungus--at some work sites. What's not fully understood in this very complex controversy, however, is whether inhalation at far lower levels in homes, schools or offices can cause the "myriad of symptoms, such as headaches, dizziness or concentration problems, or sick-building syndrome that people have been complaining about," said Dr. Jonathan S. Rutchik, a neurologist who is also board-certified in occupational and environmental medicine.

That's why bodily injury claims based on mold exposure need to be examined on an individual basis, he said. "I can't say we know enough about any of these things to say 'yea' or 'nay.'" Rutchik said. "All we know is, we don't have enough information."

But, according to many experts, the little information gathered so far fails to support arguments that mold mycotoxins pose a health danger in homes and offices. "There is no good science today that relates any mycotoxin-related disease to indoor environmental exposures to mold," stressed Dr. Ronald E. Gots, a physician and toxicologist who is also managing principal with the International Center for Toxicology and Medicine, Rockville, Md.

"The research has simply not been done," agreed neuropsychologist Paul R. Lees-Haley. "There's no basis at all for claiming that inhalation of mold or mycotoxins or any other mold metabolites causes brain damage in an indoor residential or office environment as people have been claiming."

Seeds of the Story

He and other researchers trace one source for misinformation on mold risks to a 1994 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In that study, researchers cited a cluster of 10 infants suffering from bleeding lungs and linked the condition to the presence of stachybotrys chartarum mold in their Cleveland homes. But when CDC scientists and those outside the agency reviewed the findings, they found that the methodology was flawed, Lees-Haley said. "It was determined the study didn't prove stachybotrys caused what was originally thought, and the CDC, for all practical purposes, withdrew it," he said.

Despite the retraction, the report began a geometrical progression of other...