While COVID-19 has dominated the news cycle for the last 60 days or so, reading between the lines reveals a host of other health issues that we should be aware of, including mold-related illness. From a strictly news perspective, here’s what’s happening across the nation with respect to some of the dangers mold presents in our daily lives: In Seattle, Wash., an award-winning children’s hospital that waged a years-long battle to contain an Aspergillus mold outbreak, was recently sued by the family of a seven-month-old boy who is fending off a mold infection after open-heart surgery. As reported by The Seattle Times last week (see: Mold found in baby’s heart after surgery; family suing Seattle Children’s hospital), the hospital closed its operating rooms in March of 2019, after Aspergillus infections were attributed to gaps in the walls of operating rooms and in the array of air filters that serve them. […]
Toxic Mold
Last year, we wrote about mold outbreaks at the MacDill Air Force Base and the C.W. Bill Young VA Medical Center. (See our previous post, “Responding to the Mold Outbreak at VA Bay Pines Center.”) Just this month, Stars and Stripes and the Tampa Bay Times reported that five military families have since filed a federal class-action lawsuit “against owners and managers of private housing at MacDill Air Force Base, alleging years of negligence in persistent problems with mold throughout the buildings.” The lawsuit claims that “the Michaels Organization, the private company responsible for managing the on-base housing at MacDill, knew the houses there had mold and did not protect the health and safety of service members and their families.” In one case, Jason Genrich, a chief warrant officer in the Army, developed chest pains, mood swings, dizziness, and fatigue within five months of moving into military housing at MacDill.
Many people diagnosed with a mental illness or other psychiatric condition tell similar stories. They visit their primary care physician complaining of anxiety, overwhelming sadness, fatigue, joint or muscle aches and pains, brain fog, and other general symptoms. Their doctor orders a limited series of lab tests, examine the results, and finds “nothing wrong.” They are then either given a diagnosis on the spot or referred to a psychiatrist. Ultimately, they are told they have depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, or some other diagnosis that doesn’t reveal what’s really going on or how to cure it. They are sent home with one or more prescriptions for antidepressants, pain relievers, and other medications that, at best, provide only temporary relief. Sometimes the medications provide no relief or even make the condition worse. The story changes only when a patient is fortunate enough to encounter a doctor who understands the effects