“Toxic Mold” is Keynote at
7th International Congress on Aerobiology
Chateau Montebello, Canada
August 5th – 9th, 2002
By:
Dr. Rajiv Sahay
Pure Air Control Services
Dr. Rajiv Sahay, Laboratory Manager at Pure Air Control Services’ Environmental Diagnostic Laboratory, has recently returned from the 7th International Congress on Aerobiology (ICA), the quadrennial congress of the International Association for Aerobiology (IAA). The Pan-American Aerobiology Association (PAAA) acted as conveyor for the ICA, bringing the congress to the North-American continent, for the first time in twenty years. The congress took place at the Chateau Montebello, Quebec, Canada, from Monday August 5th to Friday August 9th 2002. Dr. Sahay gives his account of the Congress …
Delegates were greeted and treated by a local organizing committee from the Department of Geography, University of Montreal. They succeeded in making it a new and exciting experience, both scientifically and socially.
Aerobiologists and related scientists working in fields such as medicine, public health, biological sciences, botany, agriculture, atmospheric physics, environmental science and cultural heritage attended the IAA Quadrennial Congress. The common interest of the interdisciplinary scientists in attendance was aerobiology - the study of bioaerosols.
Topics discussed included airborne particles of biological origin, their sources, liberation, dispersal, deposition and impact on other living organisms. The objective of the International Congress on Aerobiology was to “Bring forward the inherent ecological nature of aerobiology, from Autecological Aerobiology (single species studies) to Synecological Aerobiology (communities based studies),” said Paul Comtois, IAA President.
A keynote of the Congress was “Toxic Mold” discussed by John Haines, NYS Museum, Albany, NY. Haines’ presentation, “Toxic Mold”. What’s Going On Here? covered the confusing modern-day issue of “toxic mold”. Even though mold is not a new phenomenon, public attitudes towards mold in homes and office buildings have changed. Media coverage and multi-million dollar settlements have alerted the public to the potentially debilitating health issues associated with mold. Haines indicated that one of the action points to come from public awareness is the necessity of measuring exposure. Some questions raised in Haines’ presentation were “What do we measure and how do we measure it? How much of what we measure is too much, and what effect does mold in buildings have on us?
Other important and interesting keynote addresses delivered were Long-Term Trends of Pollen Seasons in Europe; Changes in Start, Duration and Intensity (S. Jager, University of Vienna, Austria); Pollen Counts in Relation to the Prevalence of Rhinitis and Asthma in the International Study of Asthma and Allergy in Childhood (J.C. Emberlin, University College, Worcester, UK); and Forecast of Pollen Emission: One of the Main aim of Aerobiological Studies (G. Frenfuelli, University of Perugia, Italy).
A paper on how mold spores affect human health was presented by M.A. d’Halewyn from Institut National de Sante Publiqe du Quebec (INSPQ), Canada. The paper, entitled, Health Risks Associated with the Presence of Indoor Molds: Report of an Expert Panel of the INSPQ, reported on the most current data on “environmental molds and their effects on human health, as well as an analysis of the experimental, veterinary and medical literature.” The report also weighed evidence linking environmental mold exposure to specific health risks.
Poster sessions on Indoor Air Quality included: Microbial Volatile Organic Compounds (MVOC) As Indicator for Fungal Damage (H. Schleibinger et al., Germany); Indoor Air Quality in the Cultural Heritage of Cordoba, Spain (C. Galan et al., Spain); Stachybotrys Trajectory in an Experimental Aerobiological Chamber (D. Lepretre et al., Canada); An Assessment of House Dust Mite Allergens and Fungal Spores in U.K. Carpets (J.Emberlin et al., UK); Measurement of Aero-Fungal Contaminants… (M.R. Majundar et al., India).
No less interesting were the several papers on Synecological Aerobiology, Aeromycology, Aerobiological Models, Aerobiology and Health, Autecological Aerobiology and Aerobiological Methods.
A highlight of the Congress was the “Advanced Aerobiology Course” organized and instructed by Paul Comtois (Universite de Montreal), with the collaboration of Beatriz Escamilla-García (MycoSpectra), John Haines (NYS Museum), Mike Muilenberg (Harvard University), Christine Rogers (Harvard University), John Shane (McCrone Research Institute), and Larry Syzdek (NYS Biological Survey).
The course was held at the University of Montreal’s Biological Station in St. Hippolyte, Laurentides, Canada. Attendees learned characteristics of non-biological particles, how to collect fungi, where and how to look for fungi, how to identify fungi and data interpretation techniques. “The Advanced Aerobiology Course was instructive and lively. We were taken in rapid succession from one speaker to another, from theory to practice to theory. We learned a lot without apparent effort,” said Dr. Rajiv Sahay. Dr. Sahay was one of the delegates who received a Certification of Achievement from the International Association of Aerobiology and the Pan-American Aerobiology Association for his participation in the course.
It was apparent from the proceedings of the Congress that aerobiology must be considered a multidisciplinary field which covers surprisingly broad fields of basic and applied sciences, such as allergology, bioclimatology, palynology, biological pollution, plant pathology, microbiology, indoor air quality, biological weathering, industrial aerobiology and cultural heritage. The 7th International Congress on Aerobiology certainly met its main aim of enabling inter-disciplinary communication and to give opportunities to the delegates for discussion about the different aspects of aerobiology.
