What long term health problems can mold inflict on a person living in a house with a mold problem?

Talk business with an experienced mold remediation contractor or an indoor air quality consultant nowadays and you are certain to hear stories about some unusual characters. In fact, a common topic of conversation at industry conferences and mold remediation training classes is the exchange of bizarre customer stories. Difficult clients are an expected element of conducting a service-based business, but now it also seems that odd customers are to be expected when dealing with indoor mold contamination.

In recent years, the mold work that we have been involved in has brought us into contact with what seems to be an abnormally high number of individuals demonstrating strange behavior. There was the man who informed us that mold knows when you are coming and if you get too close, it “sporinates” in a different direction. He explained that “sporinate” is the term used to describe how mold escapes capture by shooting its spores away from a person. One woman told us that she and her children could feel something growing in their heads as a result of mold exposure – that something was “moving up there.” We have had numerous customers who initially contacted us for assistance, but later believed we were “out to get them.”

After discussing these cases and others encountered by our colleagues, we began to notice similarities. The people who exhibit odd behavior have usually been exposed to a mold-contaminated environment for a long time, often years. In addition to an array of physical symptoms, they report (and we frequently observe) personality changes, depression, paranoia and loss of mental acuity. We have been contacted by individuals who have said that we (an indoor environmental consulting firm), all lawyers and the media were against them; who state that they are being poisoned; and who describe themselves as hysterical, sad and about to go crazy. A tenant of one of our clients has attempted to take legal action against our organization more than once, has made personal threats by way of e-mail and voice messages, and has harassed our employees, all with no factual foundation, but a very real, intense perception of personal offense.

Many of the characteristics observed in these people who speak or act strangely are consistent with delusions. Rudimentary research into psychology reveals two sub­types of delusional disorders (persecutory and somatic) that closely match the symptoms of mold exposure that we’ve seen. The persecutory subtype is characterized by a persons belief that he is being conspired against, poisoned, maliciously maligned or cheated. Such individuals may make repeated attempts to obtain justice through the courts. People with persecutory delusions are often angry and resentful, and sometimes resort to violence against those they believe are harming them. Delusions of the somatic subtype involve the belief that something is physically wrong with the individual, such as an infestation of insects on or in the skin. Further research shows that disorders such as these can be caused by certain medical conditions or by changes in brain chemistry.

Some types of mold that are commonly found in water-damaged buildings can produce potent poisonous substances called mycotoxins. Scientists believe that certain molds produce these poisons to gain an advantage over competing molds and other microorganisms, and any harm caused to human health is a byproduct of this natural survival trait. Even so, the toxins produced by Stachyhotrys (the most talked about black mold) are widely recognized as having the ability to affect a person’s central nervous system. It is our experience that when a person has been exposed to these mycotoxins for a long period of time, the incidence of delusions or other psychotic disorders seems to increase.

The notion that exposure to mold spores can cause significant ill-heath effects in humans goes way back. One of the first mentions of mold and people being a bad mix is in the Bible. The book of Leviticus gives specific instructions for mold/mildew cleanup and destruction of the building if cleanup is not effective. Rye mold (which contains the chemical basis for LSD) has been blamed for incidents ranging from Medieval Dancing Mania to some of what went on during the Spanish Inquisition.

Poor people of northern Europe were plagued for hundreds of years, beginning as early as the 1200s, by chronic illnesses, mental disturbances, gangrene, hallucinations and seizures brought on by ingestion of moldy rye. Even the Salem, Massachusetts, witch trials during the late I600s are thought to have been closely related to human ingestion of the same rye mold. Clearly, the linkage between mold contamination and human health problems, including mental health problems, is not new.

Most of the historical cases mentioned here involve ingestion rather than inhalation of mold spores. Although scientific evidence of the effects of inhalation has not yet been established, real life experience is making it apparent that negative health effects, often including psychological disorders, seem linked to breathing mold-contaminated air.

Dealing with an individual who has been exposed to a mold-contaminated environment and, as a result, is exhibiting some kind of psychosis-like behavior can be a real dilemma. The person may act in a way that makes it difficult for him or her to be taken seriously and to get the help needed to solve the root problem of mold contamination in the living or working environment. The person’s experience may be similar to delusions, but could very well have a chemical cause. Health symptoms that are clearly physical, like bleeding lungs or hair loss, demand attention and sympathy and are easy to understand. But psychological symptoms, even if they have exactly the same cause as the physical symptoms, are much less accepted and understood. We may not accuse these people of being witches or devils, and we certainly don’t execute or torture them, but we do put them in the “crazy” category and dismiss their claims as imagined.

Equipped with this information about the likely connection between mold exposure and unusual behavior, even psychotic behavior, mold investigators and remediation contractors may have to develop a more holistic perspective of their customers’ situations. By incorporating psychological factors as well as physical evidence and symptoms into their investigations and subsequent remediation plans, the industry may take another step toward appropriately meeting the customers’ needs.