This article is from the WebMD Medical News Archive

Jan. 27, 2005 -- People suffering from toxic mold syndrome -- often blamed on a kind of black mold that grows on damp indoor surfaces -- likely have more ordinary illnesses, a new study shows.

The finding comes from a hard look at 135 patients referred to a clinic with expertise in mold exposure. Industrial hygienist and study researcher Michael S. Crandall, CIH, referred nearly all of the patients. Eighty percent of the patients had already hired a lawyer to pursue mold-related claims.

The patients suffered from a variety of possible mold-related health effects, including respiratory symptoms, such as wheezing cough, and nasal discharge, or general complaints, such as skin rashes or joint pain. Yet after rigorous examination -- including gathering detailed histories of exposure, home and workplace analysis, blood and skin tests for mold sensitivity, and two years of medical follow-up -- there was no link between mold exposure, symptoms, and mold sensitivity.

Leading the study was allergist Jonathan A. Bernstein, MD, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati, and director of the allergy clinic at the Cincinnati Veteran's Administration Medical Center. He's widely recognized as an expert in the health effects of exposure to indoor pollutants.

"Most people hear 'black mold' and 'toxic mold syndrome' and they are terrified," Bernstein tells WebMD. "A lot of them have symptoms that within a reasonable degree of medical certainty have something to do with their environment. They have a lot of health problems. The mold is black and scary -- and to them, it seems the most obvious cause. But the majority of these people were not sensitized to mold."

The Bernstein team's report, in the January issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology, looked at 135 patients. The researchers have now analyzed more than twice that number of people with possible mold-related health effects. Bernstein says the study findings apply to them, too.

So what caused these people to come down with health effects? All of them had moldy houses or worked in moldy buildings or schools. Many of them were, indeed, allergic to the kinds of mold growing in their environments -- although none tested positive for exposure to Stachybotrys -- the black mold commonly blamed for "toxic mold syndrome."

The good news is that once the patients got out of their moldy environments -- or had them fixed -- they got better. Only one patient had long-lasting health effects.

"They do better when they leave these environments, and get worse when they go back in," Bernstein says. "These places have damp conditions. Dampness is clearly shown to correlate with lung problems. Cockroaches, dust mites -- not just mold -- but a lot of things can grow in damp environments."

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