MOLD WARRIORS PREFACE
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Already, Congress has heard the outcry from victims of toxic m olds. U.S. Rep. John Conyers introduced legislation several years ago that would provide benefits to people injured by exposure to toxigenic fungi. His original bill, called the Melina Bill, has been re-introduced into the House and Senate in 2004 as House Resolution 1268. As part of the run-up to the Resolution’s i ntroduction, Congressman Conyers held a press conference an d a Congressional briefing Sept. 22, 2004. Along with mold activists from multiple groups and human rights activist Bianca Jagger, I was asked to provide testimony regarding the human health effects caused by toxigenic fungi. My testimony serves as an introduction to Mold Warriors as well.
“Honorable Representatives, good morning.
“I appreciate the invitation from Congressman John Conyers to speak to you. I would like to talk to you about the ‘hidden’ health threats posed by exposure to toxin-forming fungi, such as S tachybotrys, Aspergillus, Chaetomium, Acremonium, Actinomycetes and other organisms growing inside water-damaged buildings that are our homes and workplaces.
“My comments are supported by my daily medical practice a nd the results of studies conducted by our research group, The Center for Research on Chronic Biotoxin Associated Illness (CRBAI). My experience with national health policy regarding a different health threat from a toxin-forming organism, Pfiesteria, gives me a perspective on human illness and public health that most other physicians don’t have.
“You might have heard from authoritative groups such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Institute of Medicine (IOM) that ‘exposure to mold illness has not been shown to cause chronic health effects beyond respiratory illness.’ They are completely wrong. It is my opinion that we must change public policy to bring change in the treatment of chronic illness caused by exposure to mold. This change would provide much needed help to hundreds of thousands of patients suffering from a treatable, chronic illness. Rep. Conyers’ bill, HR 1268, is an important step.
“For those patients made ill from mold exposure for which treat- ment is not too late, we can make them whole again. For those c hildren with mold illness that impairs their ability to learn, we can restore their ability to progress academically. For those unfortunate patients whose illness has caused irreversible health effects, including chronic fatigue, neurologic damage and rheu- matologic injury, in addition to respiratory problems, we must find new approaches to improving their health.
“Many people with mold illness are currently being diagnosed in correctly with common quick and easy labels: fibromyalgia, stress, depression, chronic fatigue, deconditioning or other unsupported illnesses. Those diagnoses are wrong.
“We offer effective, inexpensive screening with a solid case definition of mold illness. Moreover, our diagnostic protocols give patients a chance to see what is truly wrong with them printed on a lab report. We have identified measurable, reproducible diagnostic markers for mold illness that also help us monitor therapy.
“F ortunately, we now have information on any patient’s genetic v ulnerability to mold illness. Now we also have validated biochem- ical markers that document what is wrong physiologically with patients sickened by contaminated indoor air. There is no longer any rational basis for mold patients to be misdiagnosed by the medical profession.
“How can I make such statements? I am a Family Practice physician from Pocomoke, Maryland. Since 1997, I’ve diagnosed and treated patients made sick following exposure to water-damaged buildings. We found that their illnesses were due to amplified growth of indoor resident, toxin-forming organisms, including a small number of mold species. Patients from all over the United States, as well as international patients, have been referred to me for treatment. To date, I have diagnosed and treated over 2000 patients with mold illness, including 250 children.
“Why do so many people come from so far to see me for treatment of their mold illness? In part, they come because there is no logical Federal health policy, based on sound science that establishes a mechanism for detection and treatment of mold illness.
“How can I claim to know more about mold illness than the IO M and the CDC? I personally examine and interview mold patients; I treat their illness. I see what happens when mold illness st rikes and when patients relapse with re-exposure to a school or other contaminated building when just days before they were fully healed by treatment.
“I a m able to tell you the biochemical changes that develop after just four hours of exposure, 24 hours of exposure, 48 and then 72 hours as well. Every week, I lower astronomically elevated l evels of compounds that cause inflammation and then co rrect the abnormal immune functioning found in these illnesses. I can tell you what genes make a person susceptible to mold illness. Specifically, those genes are part of the immune group called HLA DR. Practically, those mold illness-genes are found in 24% of the population.
“Members of research organizations who themselves don’t treat patients will never have such first-hand experience. Their w ork will always lag behind clinical researchers who actually provide patient care.
“On Sept. 10, 2003, following my presentation at the 5th International Conference on Bioaerosols, Fungi, Bacteria, Mycotoxins and Human Health, held in Saratoga Springs, NY, Dr. Stephen Redd of the CDC kindly said, ‘There is more data here on mold and human health per square inch,’ than he had ever seen before. Dr. Redd addressed you in July 2002, as I am doing t oday, telling Congress that there were no data confirming human illness risk from mold exposure, but that he felt it prudent for individuals to not be exposed to indoor air environments contaminated with mold.
“What is the reason to avoid exposure to indoor mold if illness didn’t follow such exposure?
“I asked Dr. Redd if he would permit me to present my data to the CDC in Atlanta. He told me he would wait for publication of the IOM report. I am still waiting for my invitation from the CDC. Today, I ask you, what effort is being made by authoritative groups to link to the clear data rooted in the work of physicians who actually treat patients and who know what microbes growing in moldy buildings do to people?
“I have written several papers on the so-called Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) in collaboration with my research colleagues, st atistician Dennis House and U.S. EPA neurotoxicologist, H. Kenneth Hudnell, PhD. Two of those papers are available to you from Rep. Conyers’ office today. We have the hard scientific data on causation of illness, showing a direct connection between exposure to biotoxic mold in buildings and subsequent acquisition of illness. I believe you now have the direct science and rock solid evidence needed to change public policy.
“I invite you to look at our studies. I also invite you to meet some real people with real illness. Let them tell you that indoor mold can make people sick.
“Bianca Jagger is here to tell you her story of profound health impairments solely due to mold exposure. I have evaluated her and speak with her permission. She looks normal when you review h er standard blood tests. When you look at the labs that actually show what cytokine response to mold toxins does, however, sh e is a physiologic disaster. From absence of important regulatory hormones, like MSH and astronomical elevation of inflammatory elements such as MMP9 and C3a, to no control over cytokine responses, we can show why she is exhausted with minimal activity. While she may appear to be ‘normal,’ she is a hollow shell of what she could be, with multiple symptoms from multiple body systems that hang on her like lead choke chains.
“I invite you to go with me to nearby Prince Georges County, Maryland. Let us talk with the 55 police officers made ill by exposure to the fungal contamination in Oxon Hill Station or Clinton S tation. Lorrie Taylor will have them all ready for your interviews.
“Go with me to Eastern Correctional Institution, a state prison in Somerset County, Maryland. Let us talk with Sue Donahue and the cohort of sickened workers who were forced to fight for their Worker’s Compensation benefits. While we are there, we’ll talk with Judge R. Patrick Hayman, who single-handedly forced the State of Maryland to close down the Somerset County District Courthouse because of the massive indoor growth of mold and sickness caused by Aspergillus, Chaetomium and Stachybotrys fungi, even as the toxin illness was literally blinding his right eye.
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