PLANTS CAUSING ALLERGIES: MOLDS
Molds are very small plants which nature uses as scavengers of the soil to convert dead leaves into fertilizer. They have no roots, stems, leaves, or chlorophyll, and they live as parasites because they nourish themselves from dead leaves, old shoes, walls of damp basements, old paper – almost anything except metal.
The mold plant is composed of threads that intertwine into a loose network on which grow the fruits of the plant, or its spores. When a spore lands on good soil, it sends some threads into the ground to form roots, while other threads grow upward and form a sort of a tree.
Molds live best at a temperature of 70° to 90 °F; they stop growing at 40°F. They are killed by high temperatures, but survive freezing for months.
Mold spores leave their mother-dwelling during the summer months and are scattered by winds and storms for miles around their locality. Each locality has its own brand of molds. It takes a special mold survey to determine the type of molds found in a particular place. This is done by exposing a plate, which contains mold food, to the open air for a number of minutes each day.
Here are the results of a survey made by Center Laboratories for the Port Washington area on Long Island, New York, regarding four common molds:
Alternaria. Out of 100 mold colonies grown in a culture plate, 80 contained alternaria (i.e., 80 percent). This is a mold which looks dirty gray and is found in decaying vegetation.
Horrnodendrum. Seventy-six percent. This mold on culture looks similar to alternaria. It is likewise found in decaying vegetation, as well as on dead tobacco leaves, tomatoes, or peaches.
Penicillium. Sixty-seven percent. This mold looks blue on culture. It is the common bread mold, as well as the factor in the ripening of the Camembert and Roquefort cheeses.
Aspergillus. Twenty-four percent. This is a black mold found on the walls of old, damp, and musty houses.
Mold allergy is a disorder which is similar in character to pollen allergy because molds do not have to attach themselves to an organ of the body to cause disease (fungi in feet cause disease, but not allergies); they simply have to be present in the air to do so.
Today there is a world increase in the number of people who are suffering from mold allergy. This is caused by two factors:
a. The discovery of oil in the Middle East, which has caused a change in the kind of dwelling used in these countries (from open-air, tent-dwellings to air-conditioned skyscrapers which have cool and comfortable rooms, but which are not mold-free).
b. The forceful displacement through war of millions of people who have been made to move from a dry desert area to a damp area near seashore where wind currents, climate, and vegetation are ideal for the growth of molds (Israel, Greece, India, etc.).
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