<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Mold Misery - Commentary on Insurance and Health Issues


 

 

 

 

Commentary
 

 

When one has worn shoes such a mine, the right to speak out has been earned, probably not once but many times over.

Negligence

Not being a lawyer, I cannot define this term nor present arguments that might hold up in court, but I will provide commentary that is worthy of consideration.

Failure to build a structure that is safe is not acceptable.  Safety includes more than using the right size timber for piers and joists and headers.  It means that it will be safe for humans and their pets to occupy the structures.  As such, off gassing and mold are serious issues.  We use toxic building materials, but what this means is that in addition to formaldehyde and other hazardous chemicals that torment people, mold is mutating so as to be able to decompose increasingly toxic building materials.  Failure to manage water and the risks of water intrusion, moisture condensation, floods, and leaks is thus irresponsible and probably negligent, this almost exactly in proportion to the materials used to build the structure.  The question is simply:  who is responsible for remediation?

All potential sources of moisture and all mold growth must be addressed, even if expensive.  For an occupant, the option is to depart or see that the issues are corrected.  When I was at the entry level on the mold learning curve, a practitioner who had to burn all of his patient records, books, and office furniture related his horror story.  This is one solution.  The second story was of a work place in which four employees had become seriously ill.  The company was quietly paying for their medical care and remediating the building.  In the situations I described on the previous pages, one landlord responded properly but the other apparently has no intention of doing so.  I do not even know if the problem with the air quality in the hotel was reported.  Anyone who files such a complaint risks being labeled a crank and trouble maker.

There are, however, enormous moral issues.  I feel that I have paid dearly for my silence.  My lawyer was constantly telling me not to print anything because it would be used against me.  What about those who are ignorant of just how serious mold is?  I totally understand how dangerous mold is, and I can't be silent any longer.

All along, I have been sharing my findings with a handful of doctors and researchers but what about all the people who are still naive about mold?

The more I learn, the better able I am to reconstruct what happened with my dog as well as Bob.  Bhakti had been vomiting often.  I was consulting in Germany and had discussed her symptoms with the doctor there.  He said, "Ingrid, absolutely for certain, Bhakti has stomach cancer."  He was definite beyond anything I usually see with medical diagnoses.  She had hemorrhaged very badly and the veterinarian said the x-rays showed "gases in her stomach".  The lab tests showed that the kidneys and all other vital organs were failing.  I now understand perfectly that this was mold:  it made holes and the mycotoxins caused the organ damage.  However, as I have said in many emails, mold is very seldom diagnosed and many cancers are actually mold-related.  My rough estimate is that about one-third of all cancers can be linked to mold, but I can't prove this.  I am just estimating on the basis of what I have seen.

Bhakti was a very compliant patient.  She would take any medicine I gave her, and she was the sweetest and most beloved creature on Earth.  I did not, however, think of mold in the stomach.  I was still learning and we all pay dearly for what we do not know.

Bob also retched a lot.  We would go out for dinner and he would sometimes leave the table and come back looking totally exhausted.  He had a melanoma inside his eye, but it seemed contained.  Three weeks before he died, he had a battery of exams that revealed the presence of duodenal ulcers.  He couldn't eat anything and went into multiple organ failure.

Neither Bob nor I understood enough about mold; but all large property owners and builders do understand mold as do the insurance companies and their negligence is therefore intolerable and sociopathic.

Hurricane Damage

I lectured in the Bahamas about a year and half ago.   Having lived in Hawaii for twenty years, I was thrilled by the trade winds and sea air so I had turned off the air conditioning in my room.  When I got to the airport, I noticed that everyone else was coughing.  People told me they had been staying in hotels that were undergoing renovation following hurricane damage, meaning that if less than perfect mold remediation protocols were followed, all moldy materials would be wildly disseminated, resulting in incalculable long-term harm to guests who stayed in those hotels.

Far on the other side of the alley, I have had occasion in the last days to phone many lawyers.  There seem to be countless firms gearing up to make mold the next cash cow for lawyers.  Unlike asbestos issues, mold medical complications can appear very quickly, but the precedents for multimillion dollar settlements do not exist which is why insurers are trying to limit liability.  The reason is "they know" so to the extent that they know, they are remiss if their response to a legitimate claim is not immediate.

The lawyers are busy.  The lucrative side of what is to come will be endless defense of large corporations:  insurance companies that are denying claims, enormous employers who are not providing safe working conditions for employees, big contractors who are throwing together subdivisions and large complexes, and public places such as schools, hospitals, hotels, and even libraries.  Representing the claimants will be tedious but lawyers on both sides make a living by dragging out the process as long as possible.  This is also not conscionable but unless the world changes, we should expect protracted litigation with an occasional landmark outcome in which someone has to pay millions or billions because they wittingly and negligently failed to correct a known hazard to health.

As one person said, there are too many lawyers so why would this litigation be any swifter or more satisfactory than asbestos or tobacco or mercury amalgams or aspartame?

To the extent that huge awards will be sought for alleged suffering, you can be sure the insurance industry will continue to support bad science.  Unfortunately, I have been in the position since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic to see how this works.  No matter what one can say, it works against the patient.

Anyone who has concrete information on just how dangerous mold is will be ridiculed and efforts will be made to discredit the research as well as conclusions.  For this reason, you can expect better research to come from countries that do not have a history of gigantic settlements.  The best mold studies I have seen are coming out of Australia and India, but there are some here, even though the researchers have been flamed.

This said, I only know one person who claims to be cured of mold infection.  I am not sure what to say about myself.  I feel I have conquered many of the issues:  allergies, fatigue, slurring, memory loss, cognitive dysfunction, and dizziness.  Most stiffness is also gone.  Most skin discoloration is gone and some of the skin tags have disappeared.  I do not, however, know about internal toxicity or organ damage.  I was most concerned about the way mold decomposes organic material.  Ever since I observed this in live blood analysis, I have been totally aware of just how dangerous mold is.

Ironically, I have tried on a number of occasions to present this understanding to other researchers but they have not seen it with their own eyes and thus do not know exactly what to make of what I have told them.  I can send pictures but without a video, it won't make total sense.  Unless all mold is actually eliminated, the potential for havoc would remain and this is the basis of the contention that mold infection is incurable.  I was not sure until a week ago when my own blood held up properly for the first time in years.  I realize no one understands what I am saying nor what the ramifications are.  I have to present the information with a stronger foundation for interpreting the observations.

All I can say at this juncture is that those of you who are trying to correct your health through supplements and antimicrobials are not exhibiting a proper understanding of the real issue.  There are molds used in the production of many supplements and these are more than likely to make you worse, not better.

Secondly, bacteria and mold are enemies.  This is how penicillin was "discovered" by Alexander Fleming.  He was studying Staphylococcus aureus and noticed that one culture had died because of penicillium.  So, think of antibiotics as the opposites of probiotics and you are more likely to address your issues properly.

In my case, I used antifungal herbs, not antimicrobial ones.  To survive mold in the forest or jungle, a tree must have antifungal properties.  It is usually in the bark, sometimes inner bark, like cinnamon.

I am certain that no matter what I publish, only the most sincere seekers will apply the ideas effectively.  This is how it is at this time, but at least I will have tried to fulfill my obligation to protect others so that no one goes through what I have been through.   The more you understand, the better your responses will be to your challenges.

With blessings!

Ingrid Naiman
1 October 2006

 

Insurance Nightmares

 

 

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