Michele Williams on fri 7 jun 02
Try sending samples of these moldy clays to the biology dept. of your local
university and ask if someone there could identify them for you. See if
some enterpprising botany grad student would like to try. Ask if the Dept.
of Agriculture would take a crack at it.
Most of the profs and grad students at university biology/botany departments
love a good mystery as much as Sherlock Holmes does.
Michele Williams
m markey on sat 8 jun 02
Cheryl Hoffman Writes:
Hi All,
I've been ill with severe allergies and have just finished a series of
testing...90 inoculations in the first round, 50 in the second...not very
much fun. The results were positive for everything but three items tested.
I had a severe reaction to a number of molds and will be facing 3 to 5 years
of allergy shots unless I can eliminate these molds from my environment.
I'm suspicious of the molds that grow on my clay. I use Highwater P-10,
which is peppered with a black mold, and Highwater Helios, which grows a
fluorescent green mold. Anyone have any idea how to identify these molds?
===========================================
Hi Cheryl!
Without knowing much about the molds you describe, there is no clear way to
identify them, other than to take a sample (perhaps the entire bucket, if
possible), to a university biology department, and having an expert identify
them. However, the CDC recommends that identification of molds is not
necessary:
nerally, it is not necessary to identify the species of mold growing in a
residence, and CDC does not recommend routine sampling for molds. Current
evidence indicates that allergies are the type of diseases most often
associated with molds. Since the susceptibility of individuals can vary
greatly either because of the amount or type of mold, sampling and culturing
are not reliable in determining your health risk. If you are susceptible to
mold and mold is seen or smelled, there is a potential health risk;
therefore, no matter what type of mold is present, you should arrange for
its removal. Furthermore, reliable sampling for mold can be expensive, and
standards for judging what is and what is not an acceptable or tolerable
quantity of mold have not been established. (From
http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/airpollution/mold/moldfacts.htm )
To kill most molds, just add a capful of bleach to the glaze or clay bucket.
If you want to see pictures of molds, there are a number of great websites
about molds (or moulds) and related fungi, via google.com.
Here are a few mold websites that fascinated me:
http://www.hiddenforest.co.nz/slime/what.htm
http://www.botany.utoronto.ca/ResearchLabs/MallochLab/Malloch/Moulds/ID_Plat
e_I.html
(microsopic pictures)
http://www.botany.utoronto.ca/ResearchLabs/MallochLab/Malloch/Moulds/Moulds.
html
(Main Page for above website)
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/asthma/triggers/molds.html
http://www.nationaljewish.org/medfacts/mold.html
Enjoy!
Mohabee NakedClay@hotmail.com
Living up to my "handle" today. 110 degrees in the shade--June is busting
hot all over!
_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
Patti Yager on mon 10 jun 02
Hi Cher,
If you have access to a college or university, contact the biology
department
and ask if they will identify it for you. There may be a charge but it's not
prohibitive. They will tell you how much they need for samples & how to
transport it (in a plastic bag or in a paper bag). They may take one look at
it & say 'Oh ya, that's fsdjhjsfkfkssaffjgj', and not charge anything.
I've used colleges to identify all kinds of things from my greenhouses,
bugs,
root pathogens, molds, etc. Microbiologists are the ones who typically deal
with fungus & are pretty good ( and quick ) at figuring those things out.
Good luck.
Mudpatti
Cheryl Hoffman said:
Hi All,
I've been ill with severe allergies and have just finished a series of
testing...90 inoculations in the first round, 50 in the second...not very
much fun. The results were positive for everything but three items tested.
I had a severe reaction to a number of molds and will be facing 3 to 5 years
of allergy shots unless I can eliminate these molds from my environment.
I'm suspicious of the molds that grow on my clay. I use Highwater P-10,
which is peppered with a black mold, and Highwater Helios, which grows a
fluorescent green mold. Anyone have any idea how to identify these molds?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks, Cher Hoffman
Pat Yager
4746 W River Rd.
N. Muskegon
MI, 49445
231-744-5957
Cheryl Hoffman on wed 12 jun 02
Hi Katheleen,
I surely would be suspicious of that black mold! According to my
Allergist, black mold that forms on damp surfaces could be the one that's
responsible for "Sick Building Syndrome" and it can make you very ill. Since
my original post, I've checked out some links that Mohabee sent me (Thank
you)...scary! I called my Allergist and he agreed that if I'm sensitive to
all the molds they tested for, I'm probably sensitive to all or most of them
they didn't test for as well. Getting rid of the mold is the answer...bleach
water, lots of it on everything. I even found blue mold on my old
Birkenstocks in the corner of my studio...mold that grows on leather (tested
positive). I got rid of the chamois strips I used for rims...Becky's tip
about the Oil of Olay facial sheets works like a charm. Once I started
hunting, I was amazed at the amount and variety of molds that I found around
the house and in my studio. I'm in humid, hot Florida...mold heaven.
My symptoms are primarily upper respiratory (itchy, runny nose,
sneezing, feeling like dog doodie) but if your bronchitis is lingering, you
may want to have your Dr. rule out mold allergy...black mold is some serious
stuff!
I'm going to follow up on the suggestion to have the mold tested in a
Microbiology lab at my local Community College...just out of curiosity. It
just seems strange that none of my other clays grow the mold...all from
different clay companies. It's only the Highwater clay that grows the mold.
The P-10 came peppered with mold in the bag when I bought it...every bag, 500
lb. The mold is not just on the outside of the clay blocks...it's all
through the clay. Damn, I'm sure that mold is what makes that clay so
wonderful to throw! The Helios doesn't grow the fluorescent green until I
soak it or leave it in a slurry bucket to evaporate the water. The spores
must be in the clay because I had a slurry bucket with Standard Clay right
next to the Helios and it didn't grow the mold.
Anyone else using these two clays with a mold problem?
I'm off to buy more bleach...I'm on a mission! Cher Hoffman
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