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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Dr. Robyn Levy

Aired September 29, 2002 - 09:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Do your children have a cold that doesn't seem to go away? Well, you might be sick of your house literally. You have probably seen the stories of so-called killer molds -- indeed, there are some extreme stories out there of people like the Moore family in Massachusetts. They completely tore down their home and destroyed most of their belongings, believing they were contaminated with black mold spores that made their children ill. It is a controversial topic in the medial community, but there are many who do believe that there is trouble behind their walls.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECKY WHITE: I just want my life back. I want to be able to live in my home and not be (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

CALLAWAY (voice-over): Becky White's life began to change after moving into this condo. She mysteriously began to get sick.

WHITE: If you walk in my house, it looks like anybody else's home. It's what's in the air that is so dangerous.

CALLAWAY: She was in and out of the doctor's office, with chronic respiratory infections, taking numerous antibiotics.

WHITE: First thing was my eyes started itching.

CALLAWAY: At her doctor's suggestion, she hired two companies that investigate indoor air quality.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is where we -- where I took the sample. One of the samples, and found (UNINTELLIGIBLE) here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I confirmed that to be (UNINTELLIGIBLE) as well.

CALLAWAY: Both companies found mold, simple microscopic organisms, a type of fungi in the walls, floors, just about everywhere, even her bedroom. Mold, they said, from previous flood damage that wasn't repaired correctly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once we removed the base boards, you can see where the mold grows, because they never cleaned -- they never cleaned the wall properly, dried the wall properly. And you can see the mold growth that's behind it.

CALLAWAY: Dr. Robyn Levy says many of her chronic respiratory patients have recently moved or had previous water damage in their homes.

DR. ROBYN LEVY, ALLERGY ASTHMA CENTER: If there is a change in health related environmentally in any way to someone's dwelling or workplace, that that dwelling be considered guilty until proven innocent, and not the other way around.

CALLAWAY: Julie Miccichi considered her home guilty in making her son sick, so she called the experts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any water leaks in the ceiling or seen anything like that?

CALLAWAY: 2-year-old Miles had what doctors thought was a series of colds and viruses.

(on camera): What made you think that maybe it was an allergy and not a cold?

JULIE MICCICHI, HOME OWNER: Because it really never seemed to have a beginning or an end. You know, he would be better for about a week and it would start all over again. And it just lasted so long.

CALLAWAY (voice-over): Medicine has helped Miles with his dust and mold allergies, but Julie wants to get to the source of the problem.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That could be some mold growth, we can test that.

CALLAWAY: This test proved mold was growing in the basement.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What you want to do is remove that (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Under the right conditions, the right kind of certified person needs to take care of that for you, a certified mold remediator (ph).

CALLAWAY: But Julie also has to repair a drier vent and have her duct system cleaned.

MICCICHI: I feel like I've learned a lot, but it's overwhelming. And you know, I think I'm very skeptical as a lot of people, I mean, I'm glad that these medications are helping my son, but do I want him on these medications on a continuous basis? No, I don't.

CALLAWAY: But for Becky, medicine didn't help. There was so much mold, she had to move out.

WHITE: I feel so displaced. You know, I feel so lost. I just want my home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLAWAY: And Dr. Robyn Levy with the Family Allergy & Asthma Center is joining us this morning. Thanks for being with us, Dr. levy.

LEVY: You are welcome.

CALLAWAY: We can certainly see that Becky was very frustrated with her situation. You see this a lot with your patients who are continuously sick like this?

LEVY: I wouldn't say that it's majority of patients that we present to an allergist practice, but it's increasing numbers of significant patients presenting with non-specific respiratory complaints that appear to be related to their workplace or home environment.

CALLAWAY: We do have some questions. Actually, we have a lot of questions, Dr. Levy, I wish we could get to all of them, but let's go ahead and take the first one. This is an e-mail question. This is one about someone's daughter. "My daughter went away to college a perfectly healthy athlete. About mid-year, she developed what she thought was a cold that wouldn't go away. After a severe attack one night, she was diagnosed with asthma. She was put on medication during this summer while away from school and she improved 100 percent, but when she went back to the same dorm, within six days had another attack. She moved out of the dorm into a new one and she's been fine ever since. What could be in that original dorm causing this, and should we pursue it with the university?"

They always -- it seems like a lot of these patients seem to get into legal aspect of their situation. I don't really want to get into that, but what possibly could be in a dorm that could make you sick, mold? Fungi?

LEVY: Certainly a lot of dormitories in universities are older buildings, have not had their ventilation apparatus cleaned in a long period of time, may have sustained some water damage. It would be important to have a professional industrial hygienist evaluate that building to determine whether or not there could be some water or mold contamination in that building.

CALLAWAY: You know, that brings us to our next e-mail question from Judy, who says: "How do you find a company that tests for mold?" And I know there are certain Web sites you can go to, but what is your advice to patients when you think that they may be living or working in an environment that they are allergic to? Because there is a lot of people out there who want to know what to do. What's the next step?

LEVY: There are a variety of steps that patients can take in increasing cost and extensive nature of the evaluation. I recommend to many of my patients to visit Web sites that are sponsored now by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics. These have Web sites within their Web sites that are specific to help consumers learn about where they may look for mold in their own dwellings.

If they utilize those sites, it's important that they be careful. In remediation, they may require a professional industrial hygienist or a ventilation engineer to help them clean those areas or evaluate those areas so that they don't stir up more of the mold products while they're removing particles.

CALLAWAY: That is really good advice, and I want to -- as a consumer too, I want to remind everyone that what she's talking about is, you should never have the same person that comes in to inspect the home that also does the remediation. They should be two separate companies, because of all the checks and balances. You wouldn't want somebody to suggest something that they would benefit from if they did, say, removing something as in Julie's case, the wall in the basement.

And there are Web sites you can go to. I think we have some of those on a screen for people that they can go to to look for companies that are certified in their area to help them find companies that come to your home and do these different things.

Let's go to our next question, and we'll try to get that Web site up for you in just a moment. Here we go. "I have a large area under my home that was never finished as a basement. The musty smell from this area is coming into my home and I'm very allergic to mold, and keep sinus trouble all the time. Is there something I can spray the area to keep the mold down?"

LEVY: Frequently, patients will have a mold or musty problem they perceive in their basement, and they often say, we don't go there very much. But if that is a closed space and the ventilation system is common to the upstairs or shared with the upstairs, then those odors can come upstairs, the mold themselves, the spores, or the evolved organic compounds produced by those molds or microtoxins.

It is important to evaluate the structure of the heating and air system in that home to determine the relationship between the two floors, and then to clean out the basement, dehumidify the basement to humidity of 45 percent or less, and to remove any products that are maybe cellulose containing, like wood, paper or cardboard boxes or other absorbable products so that they are not constantly giving off additional mold products.

CALLAWAY: You know, I want to make sure that we give that Web site. They're having some trouble in the control room with this, but it's the National Association of Home Inspectors and the American Society of Home Inspectors. Those are all sites that you can go -- nahi.com, and also the ashi.com. They will help you find companies that are certified to come in your home, see if there is issues out there with mold and dust if that is what you are indeed allergic to and a doctor has told you that that's what you are allergic to.

Also, we'll give you some ideas on where to find someone who can do the remediation if the inspector finds a problem in your home. It needs to be removed, or taken care of. You need to get a separate company to come in and do that.

Dr. Levy, we had another question, e-mail question. "We want to know if there is a simple test that you could buy, say like at a home improvement store? I've seen those where you can put it in your home and it will indicate if there is mold. Do you ever recommend those to your patients, or would you prefer to have a professional come in?" LEVY: The gold standard for airborne sampling is an Anderson (ph) sampler, which is a commercially available product that can be quite expensive to purchase. Most consumers don't purchase them. Most indoor air quality certified companies will provide them and then charge for collecting that data for the average consumer who wishes to do a brief evaluation of the home, simply putting out a mold plate. If positive, will more than likely indicate a mold problem. False positives can occur, but if negative does not necessarily rule out a mold problem as it's just a simple Petri dish.

CALLAWAY: Good point. Good point. And also, if it shows that there is mold, then you do have to send it to a professional lab and pay for that to have it analyzed correctly to find out exactly what it is.

Dr. Robyn Levy, thank you so much. I wish we had more time, because this apparently is a big issue with a lot of our viewers out there who are suffering from allergies. Thank you very much for being with us.

LEVY: Thank you, Catherine.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 29, 2002 - 09:12   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Do your children have a cold that doesn't seem to go away? Well, you might be sick of your house literally. You have probably seen the stories of so-called killer molds -- indeed, there are some extreme stories out there of people like the Moore family in Massachusetts. They completely tore down their home and destroyed most of their belongings, believing they were contaminated with black mold spores that made their children ill. It is a controversial topic in the medial community, but there are many who do believe that there is trouble behind their walls.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECKY WHITE: I just want my life back. I want to be able to live in my home and not be (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

CALLAWAY (voice-over): Becky White's life began to change after moving into this condo. She mysteriously began to get sick.

WHITE: If you walk in my house, it looks like anybody else's home. It's what's in the air that is so dangerous.

CALLAWAY: She was in and out of the doctor's office, with chronic respiratory infections, taking numerous antibiotics.

WHITE: First thing was my eyes started itching.

CALLAWAY: At her doctor's suggestion, she hired two companies that investigate indoor air quality.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is where we -- where I took the sample. One of the samples, and found (UNINTELLIGIBLE) here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I confirmed that to be (UNINTELLIGIBLE) as well.

CALLAWAY: Both companies found mold, simple microscopic organisms, a type of fungi in the walls, floors, just about everywhere, even her bedroom. Mold, they said, from previous flood damage that wasn't repaired correctly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once we removed the base boards, you can see where the mold grows, because they never cleaned -- they never cleaned the wall properly, dried the wall properly. And you can see the mold growth that's behind it.

CALLAWAY: Dr. Robyn Levy says many of her chronic respiratory patients have recently moved or had previous water damage in their homes.

DR. ROBYN LEVY, ALLERGY ASTHMA CENTER: If there is a change in health related environmentally in any way to someone's dwelling or workplace, that that dwelling be considered guilty until proven innocent, and not the other way around.

CALLAWAY: Julie Miccichi considered her home guilty in making her son sick, so she called the experts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any water leaks in the ceiling or seen anything like that?

CALLAWAY: 2-year-old Miles had what doctors thought was a series of colds and viruses.

(on camera): What made you think that maybe it was an allergy and not a cold?

JULIE MICCICHI, HOME OWNER: Because it really never seemed to have a beginning or an end. You know, he would be better for about a week and it would start all over again. And it just lasted so long.

CALLAWAY (voice-over): Medicine has helped Miles with his dust and mold allergies, but Julie wants to get to the source of the problem.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That could be some mold growth, we can test that.

CALLAWAY: This test proved mold was growing in the basement.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What you want to do is remove that (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Under the right conditions, the right kind of certified person needs to take care of that for you, a certified mold remediator (ph).

CALLAWAY: But Julie also has to repair a drier vent and have her duct system cleaned.

MICCICHI: I feel like I've learned a lot, but it's overwhelming. And you know, I think I'm very skeptical as a lot of people, I mean, I'm glad that these medications are helping my son, but do I want him on these medications on a continuous basis? No, I don't.

CALLAWAY: But for Becky, medicine didn't help. There was so much mold, she had to move out.

WHITE: I feel so displaced. You know, I feel so lost. I just want my home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLAWAY: And Dr. Robyn Levy with the Family Allergy & Asthma Center is joining us this morning. Thanks for being with us, Dr. levy.

LEVY: You are welcome.

CALLAWAY: We can certainly see that Becky was very frustrated with her situation. You see this a lot with your patients who are continuously sick like this?

LEVY: I wouldn't say that it's majority of patients that we present to an allergist practice, but it's increasing numbers of significant patients presenting with non-specific respiratory complaints that appear to be related to their workplace or home environment.

CALLAWAY: We do have some questions. Actually, we have a lot of questions, Dr. Levy, I wish we could get to all of them, but let's go ahead and take the first one. This is an e-mail question. This is one about someone's daughter. "My daughter went away to college a perfectly healthy athlete. About mid-year, she developed what she thought was a cold that wouldn't go away. After a severe attack one night, she was diagnosed with asthma. She was put on medication during this summer while away from school and she improved 100 percent, but when she went back to the same dorm, within six days had another attack. She moved out of the dorm into a new one and she's been fine ever since. What could be in that original dorm causing this, and should we pursue it with the university?"

They always -- it seems like a lot of these patients seem to get into legal aspect of their situation. I don't really want to get into that, but what possibly could be in a dorm that could make you sick, mold? Fungi?

LEVY: Certainly a lot of dormitories in universities are older buildings, have not had their ventilation apparatus cleaned in a long period of time, may have sustained some water damage. It would be important to have a professional industrial hygienist evaluate that building to determine whether or not there could be some water or mold contamination in that building.

CALLAWAY: You know, that brings us to our next e-mail question from Judy, who says: "How do you find a company that tests for mold?" And I know there are certain Web sites you can go to, but what is your advice to patients when you think that they may be living or working in an environment that they are allergic to? Because there is a lot of people out there who want to know what to do. What's the next step?

LEVY: There are a variety of steps that patients can take in increasing cost and extensive nature of the evaluation. I recommend to many of my patients to visit Web sites that are sponsored now by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics. These have Web sites within their Web sites that are specific to help consumers learn about where they may look for mold in their own dwellings.

If they utilize those sites, it's important that they be careful. In remediation, they may require a professional industrial hygienist or a ventilation engineer to help them clean those areas or evaluate those areas so that they don't stir up more of the mold products while they're removing particles.

CALLAWAY: That is really good advice, and I want to -- as a consumer too, I want to remind everyone that what she's talking about is, you should never have the same person that comes in to inspect the home that also does the remediation. They should be two separate companies, because of all the checks and balances. You wouldn't want somebody to suggest something that they would benefit from if they did, say, removing something as in Julie's case, the wall in the basement.

And there are Web sites you can go to. I think we have some of those on a screen for people that they can go to to look for companies that are certified in their area to help them find companies that come to your home and do these different things.

Let's go to our next question, and we'll try to get that Web site up for you in just a moment. Here we go. "I have a large area under my home that was never finished as a basement. The musty smell from this area is coming into my home and I'm very allergic to mold, and keep sinus trouble all the time. Is there something I can spray the area to keep the mold down?"

LEVY: Frequently, patients will have a mold or musty problem they perceive in their basement, and they often say, we don't go there very much. But if that is a closed space and the ventilation system is common to the upstairs or shared with the upstairs, then those odors can come upstairs, the mold themselves, the spores, or the evolved organic compounds produced by those molds or microtoxins.

It is important to evaluate the structure of the heating and air system in that home to determine the relationship between the two floors, and then to clean out the basement, dehumidify the basement to humidity of 45 percent or less, and to remove any products that are maybe cellulose containing, like wood, paper or cardboard boxes or other absorbable products so that they are not constantly giving off additional mold products.

CALLAWAY: You know, I want to make sure that we give that Web site. They're having some trouble in the control room with this, but it's the National Association of Home Inspectors and the American Society of Home Inspectors. Those are all sites that you can go -- nahi.com, and also the ashi.com. They will help you find companies that are certified to come in your home, see if there is issues out there with mold and dust if that is what you are indeed allergic to and a doctor has told you that that's what you are allergic to.

Also, we'll give you some ideas on where to find someone who can do the remediation if the inspector finds a problem in your home. It needs to be removed, or taken care of. You need to get a separate company to come in and do that.

Dr. Levy, we had another question, e-mail question. "We want to know if there is a simple test that you could buy, say like at a home improvement store? I've seen those where you can put it in your home and it will indicate if there is mold. Do you ever recommend those to your patients, or would you prefer to have a professional come in?" LEVY: The gold standard for airborne sampling is an Anderson (ph) sampler, which is a commercially available product that can be quite expensive to purchase. Most consumers don't purchase them. Most indoor air quality certified companies will provide them and then charge for collecting that data for the average consumer who wishes to do a brief evaluation of the home, simply putting out a mold plate. If positive, will more than likely indicate a mold problem. False positives can occur, but if negative does not necessarily rule out a mold problem as it's just a simple Petri dish.

CALLAWAY: Good point. Good point. And also, if it shows that there is mold, then you do have to send it to a professional lab and pay for that to have it analyzed correctly to find out exactly what it is.

Dr. Robyn Levy, thank you so much. I wish we had more time, because this apparently is a big issue with a lot of our viewers out there who are suffering from allergies. Thank you very much for being with us.

LEVY: Thank you, Catherine.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com