Originally published October 17 2005
Oregon health authorities question toxic mold syndrome
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland has published a study that calls into question the existence of toxic mold syndrome, since its clinical study of patients could not identify a consistent set of symptoms associated with the illness.
Mold and dampness can cause coughing and wheezing, but there is little evidence to support the existence of the so-called toxic mold syndrome, according to a report by researchers at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland.
Toxic mold syndrome -- illnesses caused specifically by exposure to mold -- continues to cause public concern despite a lack of evidence that supports its existence, researchers explain in the September issue of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.
Several critical reviews have failed to find scientific support for toxic effects from breathing in mold spores as a viable mechanism of human disease, they add.
The patients had been referred by a defense attorney in a civil litigation or by insurance adjusters representing worker's compensation agencies.
Thirty patients had other non-mold-related illnesses that could explain most, if not all, of their mold-related complaints, the report indicates, and nearly two thirds of the individuals had evidence of a previously diagnosed mood disorder.
"In fact," the investigators write, "when the entire history and objective evidence were scrutinized, a number of well-established and plausible diagnoses emerged that explained many, if not all, the complaints."
In a commentary in the journal, Dr. Abba I. Terr from UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco contends that toxic mold disease is "the latest in a series of environmentally related pseudo-illnesses" that include multiple chemical sensitivity, also known as idiopathic environmental intolerance, and chronic fatigue syndrome, which was attributed at one time to infection with Epstein-Barr virus.
"Since these authors have determined that the patients they describe do not have a mold-related disease but are nevertheless seeking compensation for presumed illness through a legal process that has defined it in those terms, toxic mold disease is truly a diagnosis of litigation," Terr concludes.
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