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Monday Morning Mold September 6, 2004

Mold in the Media

September 6, 2004

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Mold Stories

-- Follow Up: San Benito Schools lawsuit settles for $15 Million (Pioneer Press (free subscription), MN - Sep 4, 2004)

-- Follow Up: Parents seek mold decision reversal (The Gloucester County Times, NJ - Sep 4, 2004)

-- Living in a 'sick' house after $638,000 judgment (Brockton Enterprise, MA - Sep 4, 2004)

-- Hurricane Frances Sufferers: Mold Action Plan (EMSL Labs) (PR Web, WA - Sep 5, 2004)

-- Not All Mold Resistant Coverings Are The Same (Chief Engineer, IL - Sep 1, 2004)

-- Homeowners feeling trapped after $24 Mil Settlement - Brittany Chase residents say they can't sell homes because of mold but won't walk away.

-- Mold Education: U.S. Food & Drug Administration Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition - Aflatoxins

-- Court Mold: Wet, stinky courthouse mystery still unsolved (El Paso Times, TX - Sep 5, 2004)

-- School Mold: Classes due to start amid repair work - Districts trying to hold disruptions to minimum (Boston Globe, MA - Sep 5, 2004)

-- Mold & Insurance: Insurers keep a secret history of your home - A huge database not only tracks claims, it also looks for risks such as toxic mold. (MSN Money - Sep 1, 2004)

-- Book Review: "Eats, Shoots & Leaves - The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" by Lynne Truss ($10.50, Hardback,

-- Book Review (con't): Eats, Shoots & Leaves

-- A Biography of Author Lynne Truss

-- NEW: Guidelines for Advertising in Monday Morning Mold

-- For Fun: Eats, Shoots & Leaves - The On-line Punctuation Game

Dear C,

Mold continued to be hot in the news last week, especially with the release of "Exposure to Common Mold Toxin In Food Impairs Growth in West African Children". That was the subject of a special edition of this newsletter. Thanks to Dr. Nicholas Money (author of the exquisitely funny and very informative Carpet Monsters and Killer Spores) for answering my questions on aflatoxins. Please see this week's Mold Education section for more information on aflatoxins. The picture above is of Aspergillus parasiticus , from the Livne Family Website (www.livne.co.il), by Katharina Pelant's thesis called Studies on the Mycoflora of Hazelnuts.

For my Florida readers, first of all, you are in my prayers. Second, EMSL Laboratories has some helpful hints you can take immediately to prevent mold (see the fourth article).

Follow Up: San Benito Schools lawsuit settles for $15 Million (Pioneer Press (free subscription), MN - Sep 4, 2004)

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Honeywell International Inc. will pay $15 million to a Texas school district that sued the company for alleged fraud over a mold problem, ending a complicated legal dispute.

Honeywell will pay the San Benito Independent School District in southern Texas for all claims related to the district's 13 schools and denies any wrongdoing, company spokesman Steve Goodyear said Friday. The settlement, reached Tuesday, ends both a court case that began Aug. 26 in Texas, and a related arbitration hearing slated for November in Minneapolis.

Follow Up: Parents seek mold decision reversal (The Gloucester County Times, NJ - Sep 4, 2004)

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WASHINGTON TWP. -- A group of parents who sought a temporary court order to re-locate 13 students from two of Washington Township's middle schools is seeking permission to appeal a judge's denial of their request.

Attorneys for the parents filed an application with the Appellate Division of the state courts Friday afternoon requesting an emergent appeal.

Living in a 'sick' house after $638,000 judgment (Brockton Enterprise, MA - Sep 4, 2004)

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ROCKLAND - When Jay and Louise Ouellette moved into their newly built raised-ranch house off VFW Drive in 2000, they expected to retire there.

Four years later, they have won their court battle, but still haven't received a $638,000 judgment, which would allow them to rebuild.

Hurricane Frances Sufferers: Mold Action Plan (EMSL Labs) (PR Web, WA - Sep 5, 2004)

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Miami, FL (PRWEB) September 5, 2004 -- Dangerous Hurricane Frances is on a relentless course toward Florida where hurricane warnings are now in effect just weeks after Hurricane Charley's rains soaked Florida homes and businesses. Fears loom amongst residents that a similar fate will be bestowed upon them by making the area ripe for mold growth.

"Florida has the perfect combination of variables necessary for mold growth," said Leslie Boggs, national director of marketing and public relations for EMSL, a nationwide laboratory that provides environmental analyses on samples such as mold. "High humidity for a prolonged period of time, moisture, high temperatures and flooding. All those introduce the necessary ingredients for mold growth."

Not All Mold Resistant Coverings Are The Same (Chief Engineer, IL - Sep 1, 2004)

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In recent years, the marketplace has been inundated with mold-resistant coatings and products designed to inhibit mold growth. The coatings have been introduced by a number of manufacturers in response to the public's increasing concern over biological contamination in the home and workplace.

There are no universally accepted standards or specifications for tests used to determine the efficacy of mold-resistant coatings on the market. As such, industrial hygienists and mold remediation professionals cannot make an accurate competitive comparison, and must base coatings recommendations on their own experience and/or the results of tests made available by the coatings manufacturers themselves.

Homeowners feeling trapped after $24 Mil Settlement - Brittany Chase residents say they can't sell homes because of mold but won't walk away.

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ZIONSVILLE, Ind. -- When Sheri Weaver tells people she lives in the Brittany Chase subdivision, the reaction is almost like she's had a death in the family. "Is everyone OK?" she is often asked. "I just tell them my neighbors have it worse than me."

The subdivision of $200,000 to $500,000 homes has become the focal point for the mold problem gripping housing developments in some metro Indianapolis counties. Fifty of the neighborhood's 127 homes are now vacant because the builder has bought them from their owners to eliminate the mold.

Mold Education: U.S. Food & Drug Administration Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition - Aflatoxins

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Aflatoxicosis is poisoning that results from ingestion of aflatoxins in contaminated food or feed. The aflatoxins are a group of structurally related toxic compounds produced by certain strains of the fungi Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus. Under favorable conditions of temperature and humidity, these fungi grow on certain foods and feeds, resulting in the production of aflatoxins. The most pronounced contamination has been encountered in tree nuts, peanuts, and other oilseeds, including corn and cottonseed. The major aflatoxins of concern are designated B1, B2, G1, and G2. These toxins are usually found together in various foods and feeds in various proportions; however, aflatoxin B1 is usually predominant and is the most toxic. When a commodity is analyzed by thin-layer chromatography, the aflatoxins separate into the individual components in the order given above; however, the first two fluoresce blue when viewed under ultraviolet light and the second two fluoresce green. Aflatoxin M a major metabolic product of aflatoxin B1 in animals and is usually excreted in the milk and urine of dairy cattle and other mammalian species that have consumed aflatoxin-contaminated food or feed.

Aflatoxins produce acute necrosis, cirrhosis, and carcinoma of the liver in a number of animal species; no animal species is resistant to the acute toxic effects of aflatoxins; hence it is logical to assume that humans may be similarly affected. A wide variation in LD50 values has been obtained in animal species tested with single doses of aflatoxins. For most species, the LD50 value ranges from 0.5 to 10 mg/kg body weight. Animal species respond differently in their susceptibility to the chronic and acute toxicity of aflatoxins. The toxicity can be influenced by environmental factors, exposure level, and duration of exposure, age, health, and nutritional status of diet. Aflatoxin B1 is a very potent carcinogen in many species, including nonhuman primates, birds, fish, and rodents. In each species, the liver is the primary target organ of acute injury. Metabolism plays a major role in determining the toxicity of aflatoxin B1; studies show that this aflatoxion requires metabolic activation to exert its carcinogenic effect, and these effects can be modified by induction or inhibition of the mixed function oxidase system.

Court Mold: Wet, stinky courthouse mystery still unsolved (El Paso Times, TX - Sep 5, 2004)

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It remains unknown whether faulty equipment or criminal mischief caused thousands of dollars in damage to the El Paso County Courthouse last spring. Sgt. Robert Flores of the El Paso County Sheriff's Department said investigators are still trying to determine whether four floors of the courthouse were flooded intentionally March 7.

The water seeped from a men's restroom on the seventh floor and flooded more than 20,000 square feet below. "It was reported to us as criminal mischief, and we are investigating it as such, but we don't have have any leads," Flores said.

School Mold: Classes due to start amid repair work - Districts trying to hold disruptions to minimum (Boston Globe, MA - Sep 5, 2004)

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A classroom ceiling fell at a Swampscott elementary school, the stench of mold carries from the administrative offices into the lobby at Gloucester High School , the third floor of Peabody High School is being gutted, and the field house at Beverly High School is closed for another month.

As another school year begins on the North Shore, students may be sidestepping workers who have been called in to repair a litany of problems at aging schools in Swampscott, Gloucester, Peabody, and Beverly.

Mold & Insurance: Insurers keep a secret history of your home - A huge database not only tracks claims, it also looks for risks such as toxic mold. (MSN Money - Sep 1, 2004)

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You probably know that it's not a good idea to make too many claims on your homeowners insurance policy because your insurer could drop you. What you might not know is that making a claim could make selling your home more difficult down the road. What's more, you could find your home's value damaged or a sale jeopardized even if a previous owner, and not you, made a claim.

Insurers increasingly are using a huge industry database, called the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange or CLUE, to drop or deny coverage based on a home's history of claims or damage reports.

Book Review: "Eats, Shoots & Leaves - The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" by Lynne Truss ($10.50, Hardback,

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This book has absolutely nothing to do with mold, fungi, mushrooms, or lichens -- or their misnamed cousin, Slime Mold (protozoa). Eats, Shoots & Leaves is a very funny book about punctuation, and misplaced punctuation.

This is an excerpt from the book, "The consequences of mispunctuation (and re-punctuation) have appealed to both great and little minds, and in the age of the fancy-that email a popular example is the comparison of two sentences:

Book Review (con't): Eats, Shoots & Leaves

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After reading this book, I am nervous about "con't". Maybe it should be "cont'" because it abbreviates continued, and the apostrophe stands for ommitted letters. However, I can't "cont'" as an abbreviation anyplace.

I guess I should leave it as "con't" because that's how everyone abbreviates "continued." I just don't know why . . .

A Biography of Author Lynne Truss

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Lynne Truss is a writer and journalist who started out as a literary editor with a blue pencil and then got sidetracked. The author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas, she spent six years as the television critic of The Times of London, followed by four (rather peculiar) years as a sports columnist for the same newspaper.

She won Columnist of the Year for her work for Women's Journal. Lynne Truss also hosted Cutting a Dash, a popular BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation. She now reviews books for the Sunday Times of London and is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4. She lives in Brighton, England.

NEW: Guidelines for Advertising in Monday Morning Mold

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Monday Morning Mold advertising guidelines:

For Fun: Eats, Shoots & Leaves - The On-line Punctuation Game

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Take this quiz to see how your punctuation is.

Monday Morning Mold Archives

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·  Hyde Mulvihill APC

·  Monday Morning Mold Archives - 2004

·  Monday Morning Mold Archives - 2003

Contact Information

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email: cmulvihill@cmsynergy.com

phone: 626-358-7471

web: http://www.cmsynergy.com/California/California%20Law%20Firms/cynthia_coulter_mulvihill.htm