This is NOT OKAY!: 60 Confirmed Cases of Stachybotrys Chartarum-150 More Allegations

Are you still a licenced practitioner for DOH. I see you live in B.C.

You have to agree Pep, sick building syndrome attributed to IAQ have more to do with off gassing, limited fresh air entering the building, and constant return air being pumped back into a building along with everyones perfumes, body odours, office equipment off gassing, not to mention city air and traffic pollution.

Combine this with office personnel all exhaling carbon dioxide into the office space to be picked up and recirculated back into the same air space builds up a cycle of carbon dioxide in the building.   Schools for instance do not have ventilation in the classrooms, at least schools built pre 1980, as we are all former school students, I am sure you can all recall walking into class Monday morning and being greeted with the stench of stale milk, body odours and other insidious odours which accumulated over the weekend from the previous week.  Then as the day passes, around 1pm you begin to get drowsy and sleepy as most here will attest some pupils did,  That is caused by lack of fresh air and a build up of carbon dioxide by students in the class room.  This condition was more prevalent in elementary schools where students stayed in one classroom all day.  As High schools allowed students to move from classroom to classroom.  Mould is everywhere inside and outside, so even fresh air brought into the school has mould, it is just some have a more attuned environmental sensitivity to it than others. ASHRAE state 4 air changes an hour as a guideline for schools, but when schools hire janitors to perform the duties of a qualified licenced Building Engineer in order to pay  low wages, you get what you pay for and kids suffer the consequences.  Parents need to attend school board meetings and demand quality air with more than 10% fresh air supplied to their kids.   Fresh air costs money to heat and cool, so using return (Used) air already heated is cheaper, and as such schools under a tight budget always seem to cut building cleaning, heating and cooling and operating and maintenance budgets before cutting their own raises.

You're welcome. I was just cruising through  and because this is one of my strong interests, I saw it and read with great enjoyment.

Even "everyday" mold is nasty stuff. Can cause allergies, asthma, all kinds of things. I religiously have all my A/C and heating ducts cleaned and sanitized every year, sometimes more often, depending on weather. And my house has never been flooded or had standing water--but we get a lot of rain (when we don't have drought) that can stand and get into crawl spaces, etc. with high humidity. I also make sure that I have specialists get under the house and sanitize, too.

We went through a historical flood in my area last year; this is a topic that's of current interest in this area. And then some areas flooded again this month.

You recognized it! Glad you enjoyed the movie.

Not surprising that calls aren't returned or things are shrugged off. We often found that contractors hired from the outside sometimes came with an agenda related to business interests. When you see an investigation or response that a) hires the same old people all the time and/or b)hires those who have strong links to a particular business or small government entity,then things can, and do, get downplayed. Which is why we always vetted through multiple levels and resources.

I am marking this "Good Comment". We will look foward to more facts and all the information you find on what has been hidden from us.

Mesothelioma from asbestos fibre floating in the air and entering the respiratory tract certainly is a serious issue, even from short term exposure. I am surprised it was in a 100 year old house as asbestos was not common during that time, not impossible, just rare.  though I would believe it may have been put there in the late 40s to 50s.  As for Stachybotrys Chartarum even one mould spore is unacceptable, and Washington Health Units know this fact.  Canada unfortunately on have Health Canada Guidelines for moulds and not Regulations, so to sue someone in Canada over mould is a losing battle, as Guidelines are not enforceable  laws.

In regards to Stachybotrys Chartarum, there is no known biocide effective against killing it, only pissing it off, (Of course bringing the room temperature below 50 degrees will put it into dormancy) but even dormant or in it's dry state, it can still rehydrate once it reaches your mucus membranes.  The only way to get rid of it, is to don a Tyvek suit, a NIOSH approved filtered respirator (Not $1.00 paper dust masks) for moulds, turn off your furnace or ventilation, blank off the floor or wall ducts with tape,  and then use a couple of HEPA equipped Air scrubbers in the place ( they are the size of a small bar fridge) then proceed to use a (High Efficiency Particulate Air Filtered) HEPA Vacuum to suck it up, followed by a wipe down with TSP to kill any bacteria left behind. Using any other type of non HEPA Vacuum will only have the Stachy blow out the Vacuum exhaust and with the heat of the Vacuum motor allow to mould to propagate and further contaminate the home or area.

Once all this is done get a contractor certified in Duct cleaning to clean and "SANITIZE" not just your furnace, but the entire length of your return and supply ductwork and floor grilles.   

In ending, one more thing Stachybotrys Chartarum, is not outdoor natural occurring mould, it only grows indoors, due to dampness and readily available orgainic material food source,wet drywall, insulation, cardboard boxes left on concrete floors etc.  Stachy does not enter school ventilation systems from outdoor air. Plain and simple.  Wet conditions allowed to fester cause it, and lack of janitorial  knowledge in basic housekeeping principles.

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I also am researching thissue with Toxic Mold and Washington State.  Google "Is it safe to Buy a Home in Washington" Washington Free Press jan/Feb 2007.  The cover up began in 2003 two months before a Weyerhauser executive secretary sold her moldy home to me.  The Washington State Department of Agriculture issued a "don't tell em about the mold policy"( Mold Guidance Policy for Home Inspectors) which states that mold does not cause structural problems and need not be reported on home inspections.  Gregoire was Attorney General then.  When I sent a complaint about my inspector to the WSDA who oversees home inspectors in this State the entomologist Dan Soumi came to my home and said my inspector must have been blind as a bat, went back to his office and issued a report that my inspector did a thorough and accurate home inspection.  He has only said this one other time in four years and 42 investigations.  My inspector missed 26 different ASHI and WDO items on my home including over one thousand square feet of very toxic Chaetomium which is also a soft rot fungus.  Macroscopically it looks like any other black surface growing mold but it penetrates Oriented Strand Board to produce many more times the amount of volatile organic compounds and mycotoxins per square inch as surface growers.  Given time it will go on to produce a white appearing area called soft rot.  There are other soft rot fungi and molds such as Philophera which is well known to rot wood.  Both of these fungi are also classified as molds so the Guidance Policy is in serious error.  The State (Gregoire was given notification and requests 5-6 times of the cover-up and false investigation by the WSDA and refused to respond.  The only response I get from any office including the Auditor's Office is we will not do you attorney's work.  My attorney should not have to defend me from fraud by the State of Washington, who effectively denied my right to a fair trial against the sellers of the home by stating my inspector did a thorough and accurate inspection.  Judge Lee threw out the case saying "these items must have been hidden as the inspector did not see them and the State said he did a thorough and accurate inspection."   I fostered two initiative petitions in the state 1012 and 1013 concerning the mold and the requirement for the State to notify the public when they make a policy which would affect our health and welfare.  The Mold Guidance Policy is the best kept secret in the State of Washington.  Senator Kohl Wells who fostered the mold tenant act did not know of the policy even five years after it's inception.  Realtors, lenders, home buyers asthma physicians were all uninformed as was the information officer for the WSDA who said it never passed her office desk.  Weyerhauser pays over one million to tort reform and the US Chamber of Commerce to protect their interests.  Gregoire's daughter worked for a Weyerhauser lobby firm.  Jeff Morrell who is given credit as a wood scientist on the mold guidance policy is also a lobbyist for the Wood Products Association. Quadrant Homes owned by Weyerhauser is involved in a class action lawsuit over moldy homes caused by substandard building practices.

I would love to get together with you and share notes.  I want a copy of the Gregoire communications.  I would also like all of the communications that led up to the don't tell em about the mold policy.  Then I would like to find a newspaper brave enough to publish them.

Excellent commentary zichi, I too went to McCrones in Chicago, funny how blue asbestos(The deadliest kind)  from Australia finds it way into London, I only found on case in Canada, when investigating for Anthrax, and it was from a Ship's Kitchen Galley inside it's stainless steel wall., later I found out the ship from the 1960's suffered a previous fire and was  refitted in Australia.  Certainly  something scary from the Blue Mountain Mines from Australia as the song goes.