By Scott Huddleston
Express-News Staff Writer

Web Posted : 05/04/2001

Hundreds of students were being evacuated late Thursday from a 15-year-old dorm at the University of Texas at San Antonio after officials uncovered high levels of a mold known to cause a variety of respiratory problems.

Up to 486 students, the number registered at Chisholm Hall on the west end of the Loop 1604 campus, will be staying in hotel rooms that the university has reserved, UTSA spokesman David Gabler said.

"We've got 300 hotel rooms reserved already, and we'll reserve more if we need to," he said.

Some, but not all, of the rooms were at the Hampton Inn and the Westin La Cantera Resort, near campus. Others were at less expensive hotels and motels, Gabler said. Because final exams are next week and spring commencement is May 12, the students only will need the hotel rooms for a short period, Gabler said.

About 2,000 students live on the North Side campus. Combined total enrollment there and at UTSA's downtown campus is about 18,600.

The cause of the evacuation was stachybotrys (pronounced stacky botris), a greenish-black, slimy mold that thrives on water and construction materials. Along with minor symptoms attributed to most molds, such as runny noses, sneezing and allergy-like symptoms, stachybotrys also is believed to produce toxins that can cause memory or mood changes, or flulike reactions such as fatigue, sore throats and headaches.

While some researchers have been skeptical, others have linked stachybotrys to asthma, as well as sick-building and chronic-fatigue syndromes. The mold began getting national attention in 1997 after researchers in Cleveland linked it to serious and occasionally fatal lung bleeding in 21 infants who lived in inner-city homes with water damage from flooding or plumbing leaks.

UTSA administrators began receiving complaints from students at the co-ed dormitory in February about allergy-like symptoms, Gabler said. The dorm's management firm was told about the problem, but when complaints continued to come in without an apparent resolution, UTSA opted to do its own testing.

Argus-King Environmental of San Antonio took air samples from the building Thursday and found high concentrations of stachybotrys in several "isolated areas" in the building, he said.

"We assume it's related to the heating and air-conditioning system," although the root cause of the mold has not been determined, Gabler said. The university plans to conduct more tests, then hire a contractor to remove the mold so the hall can reopen by the fall.

Newsweek, Dec. 4, 2000
          The December 4, 2000, issue of Newsweek contained this well-written, cautionary article "A Hidden Health Hazard," by Anne Underwood, a portion of which is quoted below---
"Deena Karabell had lived in her New York City apartment for 15 years, so when she fell ill in 1983, she never suspected that her apartment itself could be to blame.
          "Over the next 15 years she grew progressively weaker. FINALLY, in the spring of 1998, she lost 30 pounds and went into anaphylactic shock three times. She literally lay dying in her bedroom when a hired nurse noticed a strong odor of mold in the closet. Suddenly things clicked. Karabell’s family moved her out immediately. Today—at a safe distance from the mold—she is almost back to normal. ‘People are amazed at my recovery,’ she says.
           "Molds have been an under recognized health problem, but that is changing. Health-care professionals now know that molds can cause allergies, trigger asthma attacks and increase susceptibility to colds and flu. Anyone with a genetic predisposition can become allergic if exposed repeatedly to high enough levels.
           "Last year Dr. David Sherris at the Mayo Clinic performed a study of 210 patients with chronic sinus infections and found that most had allergic fungal sinusitis. ‘The prevailing medical opinion has been that mold accounted for 6 to 7 percent of all chronic sinusitis,’ says Sherris. ‘We found that it was 93 percent—the exact reverse.’
           "More rarely, molds appear to cause problems like Karabell’s. These aren’t just allergies but reactions to toxins. Certain molds produce poisons in order to kill off competing fungi and bacteria. Risks of toxicity increase with the amount of mold—and flooding and leaks can supply the moisture that molds need to thrive.
            "If you believe you have a mold-related illness, consult an allergist or an environmental-health specialist. (If you can see or smell mold, that’s a good clue.) They will at least be able to confirm the diagnosis and proceed accordingly. The best remedy of all is simply to get rid of the mold."

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