Black mold, also known as Toxic Mold, is a big health concern, but we learned today that it may have been of use in a rather unusual realm: warfare.
Toxic mold produces mycotoxins that are reported by Sponaugle Wellness to have been used as “biological warfare agents in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union and its surrogates.” Between 1974 and 1981, they report that these mold mycotoxins were used in Afghanistan, Laos, and Cambodia and may be the agent in so-called “yellow rain.”
Most of the health effects of exposure to mold are mild more like having allergies:
- Nasal and sinus congestion
- Cough/sore throat
- Chest tightness
- Dyspnea (breathing difficulty)
- Asthma (or exacerbation of it)
- Epistaxis (nosebleed)
- Upper respiratory tract infections
- Headache
- Skin and eye irritation
Asthma can be very dangerous, even deadly. But there other serious health effects possible, especially from the mycotoxins produced by black or toxic mold:
- Cancer
- Bleeding in the lungs
- Neurotoxicity
- Blood and immune disorders
- Liver, kidney and/or endocrine diseases
- Gastrointestinal and/or cardiac conditions
These lists come to us from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.
If you have black mold in your home, you may be harboring a dangerous weapon. Take it seriously. Alliance Environmental Group uses heat to kill toxic mold and then removes it safely from homes and other buildings. Contact us if you are or think you are getting sick from the mold in your home.