Pubdate: Sun, 28 Nov 2004
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2004, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.canoe.com/NewsStand/TorontoSun/home.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Alan Cairns, Toronto Sun
Note: Follow this series at http://www.mapinc.org/source/Toronto+Sun

GROW-OP MOULD

Cleveland Study Concludes the Cause of Death for Five Babies Was Mould

TOXINOGENIC HOUSE mould is the "most likely explanation" of 38 cases
of lung bleeding in infants -- five of them fatal -- in Cleveland in
the past 11 years, says a leading pediatrician. Dr. Dorr Dearborn, a
pediatric specialist at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in
Cleveland, was the lead author in a mid-1990s study that first linked
toxic mould to 10 infant cases of lung bleeding in the inner city's
east side between January 1993 and December 1994.

Lung Bleeding

All 10 kids lived in damp and mouldy housing.

Upon comparing the 10 cases to 30 same-age infants in the same
neighbourhoods, Dearborn's team concluded in the first study that it
was almost 10 times more likely to find toxic Stachybotrys chatarum
mould in the home of a baby with lung bleeding than in other homes.

Although the Atlanta Centers for Disease Control (CDC) initially
accepted Dearborn's study, a subsequent CDC review determined the odds
ratio was only 1-to-1.5, or 2 in 3.

The CDC concluded the initial findings of Dearborn's study were not as
significant as first believed.

Dearborn told the Toronto Sun in an interview that he still questions
the validity of the review, but even if the reduced statistic is
accepted, the ratio is "still significant."

"We're not saying it is proven, but we are saying emphatically that
there is a connection," he said.

Dearborn said his team has continued to monitor the bleeding lung
phenomenon and in the past 10 years there have been another 28 cases
of infant lung bleeding in the same neighbourhoods.

Toxinogenic

Dearborn said the mould scenario is valid in all 38
cases.

Across northeastern Ohio, 57 cases of infant lung bleeding have been
reported since the study -- 16 of them fatal.

"Our current conclusion is that toxinogenic mould is the most likely
explanation," Dearborn said.

Dearborn said doctors have since looked for "other things" that could
have caused the deaths and found nothing.

The only added variable would be familial tobacco smoking.

Tests for crack cocaine on 19 affected infants proved
negative.

Studies by five separate laboratories have found that when subjected
to high doses of Stachybotrys spores, rats and other test animals
experience bleeding lungs.

"But comparing infant rats to infant humans is not easy to do,"
Dearborn said.

Cleveland doctors now ask new parents if their homes are damp. Health
department inspections can be ordered. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake