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Beware the mold Stachybotrys
'The average person will spread the mold'
By
Joan MacFarlane
CNN News
November 5, 1997
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Michigan
(CNN)-- Deloris Griffin's 14-month-old granddaughter, Mikala, used to run freely
through her house, but lately she has developed breathing problems.
Griffin hasn't been feeling so well herself. She gets headaches and often feels
ill, especially when she's in her basement.
All this happened after the rains came this spring, flooding Griffin's basement
and leaving behind something strange.
"There was a small, round, black circle which I attributed to a hole in the
drywall," she says.
But it wasn't a hole. It was a mold called stachybotrys. And it was making them
sick.
The symptoms Griffin and her grandchild display are indicative of those who have
been exposed to stachybotrys, a mold so potent that a doctor in Ohio has linked
it to the deaths of ten infants.
Dr. Dorr Dearborn, a pediatric pulmonary specialist in Cleveland, discovered the
relationship between the infants and the mold after a rash of bleeding lung
cases following Ohio's spring floods in 1994.
"These are young infants," Dearborn said. "Most of them are less than six months
old and often less than two months. They'll come in with either coughing blood
or having major nosebleeds."
'The average person will spread the mold'
The mold grows after a flood, or when a sewer backs up. The fungus can become
airborne and spread through the heating ducts, which can make removing the mold
dangerous.
That, in turn, puts a premium on cleaning up properly after a house has flooded,
but Dr. George Riegel of Healthy Homes says it is something that few people do.
"The average person who goes to clean it up, who doesn't do it professionally
and doesn't contain the area, will spread the mold and you'll have a higher
concentration," he said.
Getting rid of the stachybotrys isn't always cheap. To remove it safely could
cost the Griffins close to $10,000.
It is important to bear in mind that while stachybotrys is potent and must be
dealt with efficiently, most black molds are not stachybotrys. Stachybotrys
grows only on wood and paper products, and can be found in only about 2 to 5
percent of American homes.
Nonetheless, "It's kind of unnerving," Griffin said. "I am ready to move, but
where am I going? This is my home. I can't afford to just pack up and leave."
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