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Mould Forces Houston Fire Station To Close

HOUSTON, 10:12 a.m. CDT July 18, 2001 - A Houston fire station is expected to close on Monday after flood damage caused a toxic mould outbreak inside the building, plaguing the station once again with problems. Fire officials said Tuesday that a firefighter's complaints of bronchitis symptoms prompted the decision to temporarily close Fire Station 18 located at 619 Telephone Road in southeast Houston. The building's sheetrock and cabinets have been saturated, presenting the threat of toxic mould. 

"When it gets really bad, they get nosebleeds, their hair falls out in little clumps," health specialist Dr. Andrew Campbell said. "They feel very fatigued. They get headaches. They have constant upper-respiratory symptoms." The fire station is expected to be closed for six months while workers attack the mould. Authorities said that a plan is in place to divert the station's staff to other locations and said that emergency response times should not be affected.

San Antonio, Texas, Express-News: 
UTSA dorm emptied for mould danger

By Scott Huddleston
Express-News Staff Writer
Web Posted : 05/04/2001

Hundreds of students were being evacuated late Thursday from a 15-year-old dorm at the University of Texas at San Antonio after officials uncovered high levels of a mould known to cause a variety of respiratory problems.

Up to 486 students, the number registered at Chisholm Hall on the west end of the Loop 1604 campus, will be staying in hotel rooms that the university has reserved, UTSA spokesman David Gabler said.

"We've got 300 hotel rooms reserved already, and we'll reserve more if we need to," he said.

Some, but not all, of the rooms were at the Hampton Inn and the Westin La Cantera Resort, near campus. Others were at less expensive hotels and motels, Gabler said. Because final exams are next week and spring commencement is May 12, the students only will need the hotel rooms for a short period, Gabler said.

About 2,000 students live on the North Side campus. Combined total enrollment there and at UTSA's downtown campus is about 18,600.

The cause of the evacuation was stachybotrys (pronounced stacky botris), a greenish-black, slimy mould that thrives on water and construction materials. Along with minor symptoms attributed to most moulds, such as runny noses, sneezing and allergy-like symptoms, stachybotrys also is believed to produce toxins that can cause memory or mood changes, or flulike reactions such as fatigue, sore throats and headaches.

While some researchers have been skeptical, others have linked stachybotrys to asthma, as well as sick-building and chronic-fatigue syndromes. The mould began getting national attention in 1997 after researchers in Cleveland linked it to serious and occasionally fatal lung bleeding in 21 infants who lived in inner-city homes with water damage from flooding or plumbing leaks.

UTSA administrators began receiving complaints from students at the co-ed dormitory in February about allergy-like symptoms, Gabler said. The dorm's management firm was told about the problem, but when complaints continued to come in without an apparent resolution, UTSA opted to do its own testing.

Argus-King Environmental of San Antonio took air samples from the building Thursday and found high concentrations of stachybotrys in several "isolated areas" in the building, he said.

"We assume it's related to the heating and air-conditioning system," although the root cause of the mould has not been determined, Gabler said. The university plans to conduct more tests, then hire a contractor to remove the mould so the hall can reopen by the fall.

Newsweek, Dec. 4, 2000

The December 4, 2000, issue of Newsweek contained this well-written, cautionary article "A Hidden Health Hazard," by Anne Underwood, a portion of which is quoted below---

"Deena Karabell had lived in her New York City apartment for 15 years, so when she fell ill in 1983, she never suspected that her apartment itself could be to blame.

"Over the next 15 years she grew progressively weaker. FINALLY, in the spring of 1998, she lost 30 pounds and went into anaphylactic shock three times. She literally lay dying in her bedroom when a hired nurse noticed a strong odor of mould in the closet. Suddenly things clicked. Karabell’s family moved her out immediately. Today—at a safe distance from the mould—she is almost back to normal. ‘People are amazed at my recovery,’ she says.

"Moulds have been an under recognized health problem, but that is changing. Health-care professionals now know that moulds can cause allergies, trigger asthma attacks and increase susceptibility to colds and flu. Anyone with a genetic predisposition can become allergic if exposed repeatedly to high enough levels.

"Last year Dr. David Sherris at the Mayo Clinic performed a study of 210 patients with chronic sinus infections and found that most had allergic fungal sinusitis. ‘The prevailing medical opinion has been that mould accounted for 6 to 7 percent of all chronic sinusitis,’ says Sherris. ‘We found that it was 93 percent—the exact reverse.’

"More rarely, moulds appear to cause problems like Karabell’s. These aren’t just allergies but reactions to toxins. Certain moulds produce poisons in order to kill off competing fungi and bacteria. Risks of toxicity increase with the amount of mould—and flooding and leaks can supply the moisture that moulds need to thrive.

"If you believe you have a mould-related illness, consult an allergist or an environmental-health specialist. (If you can see or smell mould, that’s a good clue.) They will at least be able to confirm the diagnosis and proceed accordingly. The best remedy of all is simply to get rid of the mould."
 

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