Mold Conference Objectives and Summary

Abstract

IMPAIRED FUNCTION AND DISEASE associated with living in a home in which mold is found seems new, but may have originated with the 1973 energy crisis. There are an estimated 40 million Americans exposed. As frequently occurs with "new" medical problems, public media, the legal profession, and insurance companies writing homeowners policies seem most aware of the problem. Physicians are consulted to render diagnoses, and to measure functional losses, assay symptoms, and opine as to whether molds found on surfaces, in the air, or evidenced by antibodies in the patient's blood are causing any or all of the manifestations. Patients hope that physicians can treat them to stop symptoms and reverse the abnormalities. In this issue of Archives, and the next, we offer a collection of papers that address these concerns. The papers were presented at the 21st Annual International Symposiumon Man and His Environment in Health and Disease, held in Dallas, Texas, in June 2003 under the joint sponsorship of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine and the American Environmental Health Foundation. The objective of the conference was to determine what circumstances have enabled molds to cause disease, why this has occurred relatively recently, and how it can be prevented. The participants included oceanographers studying coral reefs, chemists (of mycotoxin), microbiologists, physicians, otolaryngolgists, physiologists, immunologists, engineers, industrial hygienists, architects, and designers. The 30 papers presented in 3-1/2 days stimulated many discussions. The organizers decided to publish the papers because concepts crystallized sufficiently to give a coherent story that explained much about mold! mycotoxin disorders. Most clear is the need to design houses and other buildings to breathe and ventilate out moisture and high humidity so as to take away the water needed for the growth of mold. Remediation of moldy buildings depends on those same principles. Building boomed with the end of World War II to furnish 2 decades of pent-up demand from the Great Depression and the war. Let us review this scenario. To meet the demand, home building went to tracts, particularly in the sun states. Fast meant cheap and tight. As homes metamorphosed after 1950 to reduce ventilation