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Tennessee Mold Consultants
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The History Of Mold Reference of
Mold in the Bible Associating health consequences due to mold exposure by a civilization that existed 2000 years ago was surely a conclusion based on common sense reasoning and simple logic. Mold has a pungent, “unclean” odor and those exposed to mold two millennia ago would have displayed symptoms just as persons do today. Leviticus 14:45 A house desecrated by mildew, mold, or fungus would be a defiled place to live in, so drastic measures had to be taken. Leviticus 13:47-50 If any clothing is contaminated with mildew---any woolen or linen clothing, any woven or knitted material of linen or wool, any leather or anything made of leather---if the contamination in the clothing or leather, or woven or knitted material, or any leather article, is greenish or reddish, it is a spreading mildew and must be shown to the priest. The priest is to examine the mildew and isolate the affected article for seven days… Leviticus 11:47
You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean… Supported by the
findings of modern scientific studies we better know and understand why
a house desecrated by mold is not a place to live. The health
consequences of mold are no greater today than in yesteryears. However,
we now benefit from the advances in environmental medicine that provide
more effective treatments and prevention of mold-related maladies. This
should be viewed as a blessing since the incidences of present day mold
have taken a dramatic upswing in the last 30 years. King Tut’s 4000
Year Old Curse is Bunk Creatively written inscriptions describing how an intended intruder will die an agonizing death upon entry to a tomb warn Egyptian tomb raiders. King Tut’s tomb was no exception. Its curse and threat of death gained sensationalized notoriety when there was a coincidence of the number of deaths associated with the 1923 archeological disinterment of King Tut headed by Lord Carnarvon — Lord Carnarvon’s caged canary was killed by cobra in the tomb and shortly thereafter he met with his own sudden death. Newspaper reports of Lord Carnarvon’s death and the subsequent deaths of his colleagues perpetuated the superstitious authenticity of King Tut’s curse. Fact: Lord Carnarvon and 26 of his colleagues and associates met with “mysterious” deaths following the opening of King Tut’s tomb. Fiction: Deaths were the result of King Tut’s curse. Scientific studies revealed the presence of Aspergillus mold spores (extremely poisonous) in the tomb were at a high level when the tomb was opened. Inhalation or ingestion of the spores are the cited source for the numerous and mysterious deaths — the toxic mold had lain dormant in King Tut’s tomb for thousands of years before stones were removed for Lord Carnarvon’s and others’ entry. The wisps of in-rushing air and movement of all entering disturbed and dispersed the toxic spores into the air. (In a similar story dating in the early 1970’s, 10 of the 12 scientists not wearing respirators and who unsuspectingly entered a mold infested Polish royal tomb, succumbed to the mold’s toxic effects.) “…A medicine scholar at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, has completed a study which purportedly shows that the curse of King Tut never really existed. Mark Nelson selected 44 Westerners in Egypt at the time the tomb was discovered for inclusion in the study. Twenty-five of the group were potentially exposed to the curse either because they were at the breaking of the sacred seals in the tomb on February 17, 1923, or at the opening of the sarcophagus on February 3, 1926, or at the opening of the coffins on October 10, 1926 or the examination of the mummy on November 11, 1926. The study, which was published in the December issue of the British Medical Journal showed that exposure had no effect on the length of survival. Newspapers in the
decades following the opening of the tomb speculated that the deaths of
some of those connected with the discovery, most importantly Lord
Carnarvon who financed the expedition and died shortly after the find,
were caused by a mysterious curse put on the tomb to protect the King's
mummy.” Medieval Food
Bowls “Trench mouth” is a severe case of gingivitis and a term actually coined during WWI when soldiers fighting in the trenches rampantly suffered the gum disease from the lack of necessary oral hygiene. Gingivitis was also common in medieval times as reported below. Eating from mold and bacteria contaminated bread bowls contributed to the conditions that caused gum disease, albeit the lack of proper oral hygiene that was directly responsible for the malady. “Most people did not
have pewter plates, but had trenchers, a piece of wood with the middle
scooped out like a bowl. Often trenchers were made from stale bread
which was so old and hard that they could be used for quite some time.
Trenchers were never washed and a lot of times worms and mold got into
the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy, moldy trenchers, one
would get 'trench mouth'.” The Salem Witch
Trials “In her book, Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics, and History, Mary Kilbourne Matossian (a history professor) presents overwhelming evidence that the population of Europe was held down for 500 years by endemic mold-induced food poisoning called ergot or ergotism. Although most sources attribute this long epidemic to fungi in the genus Claviceps, she also gives credit to the genus Fusarium. Both genera infected rye kernels before and after harvest, producing toxic, long-acting alkaloids (e.g., ergotamine). In northern Europe the poor, who lived on rye bread and little else, were the most affected. Women miscarried and children died frequently. Those who survived childhood had chronic illnesses, gangrene, and mental disturbances. Their hallucinations and seizures were interpreted as witchcraft, possession, or divine inspiration. No one knew that their diet was responsible for their misfortune. Not until wheat and potatoes began to replace rye did the epidemic abate. Wealthy households were never affected as much as poor households, because their servants prepared the grain as gruel, boiling it over a fire for about a half hour, which broke down the toxin. They also enjoyed a more diverse diet, including meat and white bread. Ergot was responsible for the low birth rate and high death rate in Europe from perhaps as early as 1250 to 1750. It even provided occasion for the Salem witch trials, because the early settlers of Massachusetts planted rye, ate rye bread, and experienced hallucinations and seizures just as the Europeans did. Even as late as 1945, ergotism was still retarding the population growth of Russia. As a strong influence
on population and quality of life in Europe for half a millennium, mold
had a massive effect on the course of history.” Is Cancer in Our
Food? “The major 'naturally occurring carcinogens' present in food which are well documented to cause cancer are the fungi (MOLD) and their toxins. Furthermore, they are variably present such that the involved food correlates with cancer when fungal colonization and mycotoxin contamination is maximal, and does not when it is minimal or absent. There are two other
“naturally” occurring items which must also be addressed, nitrosamines
and viruses. However, viruses are not proven to cause any type of cancer
in humans and the nitrosamines are increasingly being shown to be
produced by a number of fungi, particularly in stored, cured and
fermented foods.” An Intentional
Case of Mold Poisoning Aflatoxin is a cancer
causing poison produced by mold and is a food contaminate (used by Iraq
on the Kurds). Mold Spores in
Tobacco Products “We all know that
smoking or chewing tobacco causes cancer. The mycotoxin (poison)
producing fungi Alternaria and Aspergillus niger were found in six
brands of cigarettes.” Some of the nine different species of Aspergillus found in Egyptian chewing tobacco in the early 1990’s are known producers of poisons that cause cancer. Ochratoxin and aflatoxin were among the list of carcinogens. Reader’s Digest
Poll Reader’s Digest posed
a question to readers, asking what one of four listed concerns they
considered to be the most hazardous in their home. It is not known how
many responded, but the results are evidence of a high degree of concern
about mold exposure among those that participated in the poll. It would be interesting to compare figures from 30 or even only 20 years ago, had Reader’s Digest conducted this same poll back then. It is seriously doubtful that the mold and mildew problems during the earlier times would have been considered as “threatening”. The Irish Potato
Famine “The potato was
introduced to northern Europe in the 1700s, and is credited with the
quadrupling of Ireland's population between 1740 and 1840, because it
could support three or four more people per acre than wheat could. The
potato blight came in 1845 and returned at intervals thereafter, causing
widespread famine and the loss of half Ireland's population by
emigration and starvation in a period of 47 years. This time the mold
did not sicken people, as the ergot had, but it killed the plants that
provided them with food. The result was an Irish diaspora.” Note: Mold and fungi
are responsible for dramatic changes in the social and cultural history
of mankind. The consequences of Ireland’s potato fungus prompted a loss
of nearly 50% of its population due to death or emigration to the U.S.,
Canada and other parts of the world. Today, there are an estimated 70
million Irish descendants residing outside of Ireland as a direct result
of a lowly fungus that invaded their homeland during the mid to late
1800’s. Source: http://www.spore-tech.com |
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