COLCO News 2001.11.28, by Candis McLean

THE SILENT SCOURGE: MOULD COVER STORY, THE REPORT NEWSMAGAZINE, 2001.12.03

Forget anthrax-we are more often affected by another kind of spore: it comes from the mould found increasingly in homes, offices and aircraft.

When attractive young mother Karen Halun ran to answer the phone September 4th, she little suspected how the call would change her life. On the line was Health Canada toxicologist Goran Krstic.

As the homemaker from Port Moody, B.C., 15 miles east of Vancouver, explains it, Mr. Krstic said, "I don't want to alarm you, but the laboratory informs me you have the highest level of toxic mould spores it has ever seen in a home."

Rounding up their four young children, the Haluns left their condo for good, pleased with only one thing: at last they felt they had the answer to the mysterious lung ailment which had been plaguing Mr. Halun.

At its worst, had him coughing blood and sleeping twenty-three hours a day. "I don't care about money. I want my husband. I want my children to be healthy. The health issue must be addressed," Ms. Halun told an Ottawa press conference to which she trekked in October, along with six other B.C. residents suffering from leaky-condo syndrome.

While much attention is currently being focused on the anthrax spore, the average Canadian is far more likely to be affected by the mould spores found increasingly in homes, schools, offices and aircraft.

Some estimates say five to ten percent of homes contain mould. Don Fugler, senior researcher with Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), believes the figure is closer to one-third of all homes, except in dry areas of the prairies where numbers will be lower.

In his study of Ottawa basements, Mr. Fugler found up to fifty percent showed evidence of moisture damage and, frighteningly, "in each basement where we found mould there was always one really vicious mould like Stachybotrys or Aspergillus which are known to be toxigenic-injurious to health."

The concept is that mould weakens tiny capillaries and stress may be the trigger for hemorrhage." If you have Stachybotrys mould, remove it. Even if it is dead, its spores contain toxins for years.

It has also become a hot political potato, since decisions must be made about who pays for what. The amounts are staggering. In B.C. alone, a burgeoning list of 880 "leaky rotten condos" has been compiled on one victims' advocacy Web site (www.myleakycondo.com). Spokesman James Balderson, retired professor of educational administration at the University of Alberta, estimates the actual number at 100,000 residences, affecting 250,000 people with a whopping repair bill of $2 billion.

With hundreds of cases heading for court, the total cost of litigation may be that much again. After years of research, the earliest recorded leaky condo the group has found was built in 1972 of concrete and steel. "The leaks feed the fungi which rots the wood, but I've also seen steel studs in concrete high-rises crumble like rotten wood because they rust out from the presence of water," Mr. Balderson says. "About 150 concrete high-rise condo towers are suffering from the same fiasco. The concrete bones make them safe to stand, but I've seen several cases where great slabs have fallen off walls from 30 stories up and crashed to the ground. No one has been hurt, so far."

Ms. Waboose hated the smell in the house and "used to clean and clean" but it never improved. Today she can see a slimy green mould outside the skirting of her prefabricated house; authorities have told her there are four types of mould in her home. At a cost of $1.2 million, she and other band members have been moved into motels, trailers, tents in bush camps and apartments off the reserve. "It's costing a fortune for renting places and also for us to drive back to the reserve to our jobs," she says.

A member of the emergency crew who asked not to be identified says the slimy growths were noticed eight years ago. "The band called in the contractor who built the homes, selected by the chief and council and he was annoyed. He had us just stipple over the green stuff in the ceilings and take the drywall off the walls and put new drywall up. We could see it was all black behind there, but we didn't know what it was, or that it would grow right back through the new wall. It should have been removed."

"I can confirm there is toxigenic mould in high concentration in several homes," continues Ms. Rawn. The mould is Stachybotrys, described by Health Canada senior research scientist Hari Vijay as "dangerous as a rattlesnake in the home"—a greenish-black mould that grows on materials with a high cellulose content, and which is associated with everything from immune suppression to brain damage. "And this isn't the worst reserve," Ms. Rawn adds ominously. "Just driving through northern communities I can see from the construction of the homes, the water is wicking up the walls."

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