Saw a show on "Disover" channel last night about newborns in Cleveland dying from lung hemorrhage. It was produced as a "medical mystery" type story. To cut a long story short, the house where the babies were sick (20+) or died (4) had a history of flooding in the basement, which allowed a mold, Stachybotrus autra (spelling may be wrong) to grow. The mold then dried, and the spores became airborne and were sucked into the air intake part of the furnace, which then spewed them throughout the house. The babies inhaled the mold spores, which then grew in their lungs. Other contributing factors for illness and death were (1) smoking/smokers in the house and (2) lack of breastfeeding. They didn't "Wiessingerize" it and talk about how babies with NORMAL lungs (from breastfeeding) didn't get sick, while babies with ABNORMAL lungs (from formula use) did get sick and die. They just talked about the 'protective effect' of breast milk on the lungs, which helped the babies cope with the mold. Still, it was great to see breastfeeding so prominently highlighted as being an important factor distinguishing babies who stayed healthy even with mold in the house, from those who got sick or died. The root problem was the flooding or leaking pipes in the basement. This mold is apparently becoming a major health problem in the US. :( Kathy Dettwyler _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html