I have been thinking a lot about the recent flooding in NOLA and elsewhere, and I'm very worried that the people there may be subjected to a very serious public health problem from stachybotrys atra - if those who are working are not given holidays off from work to spend the days or even weeks that they need to clean it off and properly dispose of the toxic debris. This is really important. Some molds produce mycotoxins that are extremely dangerous, and once produced, it gets pulverized into microscopic particles too small to identify in microscopes that go through all known air filters. However, they still are very toxic.. they kill cells..and cause cancer..

The jury is not 'still out on this' despite the media campaign to downplay the dangers of toxic mold. Its very real and it commonly ruins lives..

There IS an appropriate response to all this flooding.. But we are not pursuing it.

For more about the threat from unidentifiable (through visible analysis of spores) stachybotrys particles, see http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/full/71/1/114