What are Biotoxins?
Aspergillus Ustus image provided and copyright by Dennis Kunkel Microscopy, Inc. www.denniskunkelmicroscopy.com
Biotoxins are certain "bad" fungi (commonly called molds), dinoflagellates, cyanobacteria, spirochetes, apicomplexans, and mycotoxins. Biotoxin Illness is often call "Mold Illness" because "mold" is the most common catalyst. Not all molds are dangerous. In fact, we need mold to compost our gardens, flavor our blue cheese and produce penicillin. There are many more good varieties of mold than harmful varieties. However, there are some dangerous kinds of mold, especially for those individuals who can't make antibodies against them. These harmful molds include aspergillus penicillioides, aspergillus versicolor, chaetomium globosum, stachybotrys chartarum (commonly called "black mold") and wallemia sebi. Most people who are exposed to these bad molds may feel unwell but will recover quickly when they are no longer exposed to the bad molds. The immune system uses antibodies to remove these biotoxins from the body with no long term ill effects. For individuals who can't make antibodies against these biotoxins, long term illness will result.
Since the 1970's we have far more these "bad" molds in our environment than in all of history. This is because we invented a very effective fungicide called Benomyl which became widely used in farming in the 1970's. The fungicide was so effective at killing the common fungi on crops like strawberries and molds in grains that very few fungi could survive Benomyl. The fungi that could survive were from the families of "bad" molds. Without competition, these more dangerous molds became much more common in our environment. Farming communities were hardest hit as Benomyl permeated soils and remained allowing only "bad" molds to flourish. Benomyl was also added to paints in the 1970's to stop the growth of fungus (or mold) on damp walls. Again, it was very effective at killing most harmless molds, leaving a few types of very harmful molds to grow unchecked. This paint was often used in public buildings like schools and commercial buildings like office complexes. Consequently we are now exposed to greater quantities of these dangerous types of fungi (molds) than at anytime in history.
Aspergillus Ustus (pictured) is one of the good guys.
Since the 1970's we have far more these "bad" molds in our environment than in all of history. This is because we invented a very effective fungicide called Benomyl which became widely used in farming in the 1970's. The fungicide was so effective at killing the common fungi on crops like strawberries and molds in grains that very few fungi could survive Benomyl. The fungi that could survive were from the families of "bad" molds. Without competition, these more dangerous molds became much more common in our environment. Farming communities were hardest hit as Benomyl permeated soils and remained allowing only "bad" molds to flourish. Benomyl was also added to paints in the 1970's to stop the growth of fungus (or mold) on damp walls. Again, it was very effective at killing most harmless molds, leaving a few types of very harmful molds to grow unchecked. This paint was often used in public buildings like schools and commercial buildings like office complexes. Consequently we are now exposed to greater quantities of these dangerous types of fungi (molds) than at anytime in history.
Aspergillus Ustus (pictured) is one of the good guys.
