Good Morning,

This week's photo is of a dust mite, by Dennis Kunkel. Prints are available for purchase at www.astrogra phics.com.

Coming soon: reviews of: My Office is Killing Me! by Jeffrey May, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006; The Triumph of the Fungi - A Rotten History, by Nicholas P. Money, PhD, Oxford University Press, 2007. In this issue, I am reprinting an earlier review I did of of the very informative (and amusing) My House is Killing Me! by Jeff May.

Hot tips on mold? Please e- mail them to Cynthia A. Coulter Mulvihill at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

"Because there's the possibility that the caulking around these shower 'surrounds' might break down over time, we want to go in and proactively address the issue now," wrote Pulte spokeswoman Melanie Hearsch in an e-mail to the Daily Press.

Click here for Builder schedules massive mold cleanup - 590 homes affected at Pulte's A.V. communities (Victorville Daily Press, CA - Sep 27, 2006)

The lawsuit, filed in February 2005, said that the apartments in a converted schoolhouse in the East Baltimore-Midway neighborhood had water leaks, standing water and mold since the late 1990s. The suit sought $3.2 million for residents Louise Bills, Mary Roy and Johnnie Pratt.

Click here for 3 awarded $375,000 in lawsuit over mold (Baltimore Sun, United States - Sep 28, 2006)

While indoor air pollution is an important priority for everyone, parents of babies and toddlers tend to worry about it the most. Statistics show childhood asthma rates are rising, along with certain types of childhood cancer. Approximately 20 percent of American children have asthma, and it sends 160,000 kids to the hospital each year, according to the Mt. Sinai Center for Children's Environmental Health.

Click here for Battling Household Air Pollution (Chronogram, NY - Oct 1, 2006)

The study conducted by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health examined three single-family homes in New Orleans. Examinations sought to see what homes could be reconstructed in the wake of flooding.

Click here for Recipe for mold: hurricane and several weeks underwater (Discovery Reports Canada, Canada - Sep 25, 2006)

Much of the interior of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house at 410 Rose Lane will be torn apart in an attempt to locate and remedy the problem, which was brought to UK's attention by some angry parents.

Click here for Mold closes UK frat house (Kentucky.com, KY - Sep 29, 2006)

His brother, Hank Klein, said the illness was a shock because Ted exercised regularly, ate healthy foods and never smoked. ''We don't know what caused this disease,'' said Klein, vice chairman of Codina Realty Services. ``He skied several times during the winter. He hiked during the summer. He jogged all the time. He was in excellent shape for a man of 66.''

Click here for Did Mold Kill the Magistrate? U.S. Magistrate Klein, veteran defense attorney, dies - Ted Klein, a South Florida legal giant, died of a mysterious lung ailment that cut short his career as a federal magistrate judge. (Miami Herald, FL - Sep 28, 2006)

The clinically diagnosed case series consisted of 521 adults with newly diagnosed asthma and the control series of 932 controls, after we excluded 76 (7.5%) controls with a history of asthma. In logistic regression analysis adjusting for confounders, the risk of asthma was related to the presence of visible mold and/or mold odor in the workplace (odds ratio, 1.54 ; 95% confidence interval, 1.01-2.32) but not to water damage or damp stains alone. We estimated the fraction of asthma attributable to workplace mold exposure to be 35.1% (95% confidence interval, 1.0- 56.9%) among the exposed. Present results provide new evidence of the relation between workplace exposure to indoor molds and adult-onset asthma. Key words: asthma, case-control study, molds, occupational exposure, population-based.

Click here for Mold Education: Indoor Dampness and Molds and Development of Adult-Onset Asthma: A Population-Based Incident Case-Control Study (Environ Health Perspect 110:543-547 (2002)

Adjusting for age, sex, parental education, region of residency, and parental history of atopy, we found that mold spore counts for Cladosporium and Aspergillus were associated with an increased risk of allergic sensitization. Sensitized children exposed to high levels of mold spores (> 90th percentile) were more likely to suffer from symptoms of rhinoconjunctivitis. We conclude that elevated indoor concentrations of molds in wintertime might play a role in increasing the risk of developing atopic symptoms and allergic sensitization not only to molds but also to other common, inhaled allergens. These effects were strongest in the group of children who had lived in the same home since birth. Key words: allergic sensitization, house dust, indoor allergen exposure, molds.

Photo: Aspergillus spp., Dennis Kunkel Microscopy, Inc.

Click here for Mold Education: Indoor Exposure to Molds and Allergic Sensitization (Environ Health Perspect 110:647-653 (2002)

Mr. May addresses problems that can be found in each area of a home: the bedroom; the bathrooms; living room and family rooms; kitchens and dining rooms; basements; laundries; the attic; and in HVAC systems. He also talks about allergens in cars, schools, and homes. Importantly, he has solid and sensible recommendations for fixing the problems.

Now, for the funny stuff. Mr. May has been an inspector for many years, and has run into some very interesting problems. One laugh-out-loud story was called "The Hot Seat," and described a toilet that actually smoked and steamed (page 66). Have a bee problem? Don't try and remove them yourself (page 89). He has plenty of personal anecdotes as well, such as a temporary biological weapon his son inadvertently created by frying jalepeno peppers and onions (page 100).

Click here for BOOK REVIEW (Reprint): My House is Killing Me! The Home Guide for Families with Allergies and Asthma (Jeffrey C. May, 2001, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 339 pages, $17.95)

It travels through the air and is inhaled by the occupants causing a multitude of health problems. It is so bad that many experts agree that the degree of health problems caused by black mold has been equated to those caused by asbestos.

Click here for Mold & Technology: "No Burn of California" Launches New Product That Fights Black Mold, The "Next Asbestos"

Ms. Mulvihill's confidential services include, depending on who she is retained by, and when:

• Analysis of property damage and personal injuries
• Conducting a property inspection
• Reviewing medical records
• Determination of the potential for a causal link between mycological issues and personal injuries
• Research of what needs to be done to prove -- or disprove -- property damage, personal injuries, and their causal links
• Determination what entity or entities might have caused property damage
• Reviewing insurance policies to determine if insurance coverage is available for the claims
• Determination what kind of expert or experts need to be retained to prove or disprove a case
• Preparation of expert witnesses for depositions
• Preparation of written discovery
• Preparation of attorneys for questioning of expert witnesses

Click here for Mold Professionals: Cynthia Coulter Mulvihill (Mold Litigation Consulting)