Bio-toxin illness – it's more common than you think
A recent Federal government inquiry into Biotoxin-related illness and Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) brought the issue of mould and how dangerous it can be for your health to everyone's attention.
The inquiry was held in August this year and it examined how this debilitating illness is caused by exposure to mould or water damaged buildings. The inquiry's report made many recommendations which we'll need to adopt if we're going to able to properly address this illness.
The inquiry recommendations included:
Ensuring there is far more widespread public knowledge of this illness.
Raising the standards of practice around mould in building codes.
Clinical guidelines for those in the medical profession so people with CIRS can be diagnosed and treated.
Research on CIRS and how mould affects human health.
Help and advice for tenants when rental properties or social housing is affected by mould.
You can read a full copy of the final report here.
The man behind SAN-AIR
Following this report, it's hoped there will be much more public knowledge about CIRS here in Australia and so this will mean we catch up with other parts of the world such as the US and Europe, which have recognised CIRS for some time.
But while many of us have been blissfully unaware of the inherent dangers of mould – both in the home and in the workforce – one man was fully aware of the health hazards. His name is Daniel Massaioli and with a double major in Pure and Applied Chemistry from the University of New South Wales, he has worked in the area of new product development for many years.
His first position was as a research and development fellow at Union Carbide in Sydney. He followed this with 22 years where he ran a pharmaceutical company during the day and worked on new products in his spare time. He passed these product improvements on to the pharmaceutical company he was working for.
During this long period, Massaioli was responsible for releasing a number of products on to the marketplace. He would often sell a formulation to an alternative client who would then launch the formulation as a new product. All in all, he has been involved in product research and development for 28 years. The products he developed cover a wide range of industries from cosmetics to pharmaceutics and photographic chemicals.
Inventing a product to deter mould growth
While working in this field, Massaioli was inspired to create a product which would deter mould growth. One of the reasons he was so keen to do this was because of the experiences he had with his own sons. When his sons were young, they were constantly affected by asthma and ear infections. After many medical tests, Massaioli and his wife, Rafaella, were told their children had severe allergies.
As Massaioli says: "While my wife and I had not suffered asthma, our young boys had many bouts of it. After many tests, we found the boys had severe/ dangerous reactions to mould and pollens, certain food additives and some food colours. It was a shock that they had mould allergies!"
Massaioli says both he and Rafaella were shocked because they were living in a brand new home. After much reading and online research, plus some air sampling tests, Massaioli confirmed the air conditioner in their house had already developed a level of mould and bacteria which was higher than levels of the same bacteria found outside.
Determined to find out why his boys were suffering so much, Massaioli kept researching this area. He remembers during the boy's early years he was involved in their soccer and baseball clubs. "It was during one of these countless games as coach of under 6s and under 7s, during a beautiful winter morning where the sun was out bringing the moisture up from the grass," he says.
"I knelt down to do up the yet another set of boot shoelaces.... and I nearly keeled over, suffocated by the thick, nearly choking mould fumes coming up from the grass and soil!" he adds.
So Massaioli took mould and bacteria air samples and collected them at various heights. His results showed the amount of mould at 30 cm from the ground compared to something like an adult's height (say 70 cm) could mean there is as much as 100 times more mould and bacteria counts in the air that young children breathe – compared to the air an average adult breathes in.
Diagram showing how the concentration of mould increases as height increases here.
So what's the solution once mould gets indoors?
After he'd established this reason why mould and bacteria often affect young children more than adults, Massaioli became interested in what to do about it. He knew that indoor mould was the invisible enemy but he also knew – no-one seemed to know what to do about it.
So Daniel set out to develop a product which would help people manage a mould problem if they had one – and deter mould from growing if they didn't! He succeeded in developing a unique blend of organic derivatives, sourced as pure distillates from specific plants.
The formulation is effective in eliminating the airborne micro-organisms which cause the problem and it contains only natural ingredients so it's safe for use. Massaioli established his own company called SAN-AIR to sell the product and he's been operating for five years now – after a decade researching this area.
Since then, SAN-AIR has shown steadily increasing sales as the awareness of the importance of inhibiting mould growth in the home and the workplace has grown. These days, SAN-AIR products have become very popular – particularly on the eastern seaboard of Australia where humidity and temperatures are both high – both factors which encourage mould growth.
Studies show the SAN-AIR products work
Massaioli says he's carried out studies which reveal the use of SAN-AIR products will lead to a decrease in indoor bio-burden to levels well below the Australia New Zealand standards for air quality. He says: "Levels of mould below 150 colonies per 1000 litres of air are needed to ensure adequate indoor air health."
"Use of the SAN-AIR products will achieve both of these bio-burden levels with a low-level dosage of the air conditioning unit in either your home or your office. Importantly, these products will help keep the air conditioning unit from accumulating unsafe levels of bio-burden," he adds.
Massaioli says he still recommends air conditioners are still regularly cleaned – both for coil cleaning and ductwork cleaning.
Air conditioner maintenance is vital to your health
Massaioli says there's a great deal of evidence to support the fact that the maintenance and design of our air conditioners – both in our homes and our workplaces – is vital to our indoor air quality and ultimately, our health.
"There are over 900 research papers around the world recognising that indoor air quality can be severely undermined by poor maintenance of the premise's Air conditioning unit," says Massaioli.
"Often an air conditioner which is used in a workplace or home is not well suited to the space and has not been designed to give proper airflow and humidity control. This can lead to serious bio-burden build up and then this can be shown to lead to serious health effects in building occupants," he adds.
Massaioli says even a new air conditioner can be contaminated quickly: "A small level of contamination depositing inside the workings of an air handling system can lead to serious levels of contamination when the conditions of moisture and food source are right," he says.
Studies show cleaning air conditioners makes the difference
There are a number of studies showing that when mould contamination is lowered by cleaning air conditioners and using the right products, those living or working in the building find they have far less ill-health symptoms.
Massaioli says these world-wide studies have shown that normal outdoor air carries from 50 to 600 bacteria and mould per 1,000 litres of air but often what is thought to be a relatively 'clean' air conditioner can still be delivering 1,000-2,500 bacteria and mould per 1,000 litres of air.
"When you notice that indoor air is smelling musty, or people start to show negative health effects, the air conditioner is usually delivering well above 2,500 bacteria and mould per 1,000 litres of air," he adds.
Take a look at this document which outlines the Australian and New Zealand Standards for the Control of microbial growth in air- handling and water systems of buildings here.
The Australian and New Zealand Standards document states: Contamination by fungi or bacteria can develop on wet surfaces. It has been suggested that an acceptable level of airborne viable micro-organisms in occupied spaces is around 500 to 1000 colony forming units per cubic metre. Levels of 3000, 5000 and 10 000 have been associated with hypersensitivity pneumonitis outbreaks and it is generally thought that a level of 1000 is sufficient to warrant investigation and improvement (which is not to say that the air is unsafe or hazardous — such assessments require the services of medical practitioners and epidemiologists).
How do you know if your indoor air quality is good enough?
Massaioli says he is asked this all the time and so he can help people with the answer, he developed some test kits so people could measure the quality of their indoor air. So if you think you may have mould in your home of office, you can go to the SAN-AIR website for
