Mould and bacteria in your air conditioner is a serious family health concern

Are you worried about the quality of the air in your home? Health experts certainly are. In fact, The World Health Organisation lists poor indoor air quality as one of the serious threats to the health of individuals. As Australians spend up to 90% of their time indoors, it's no wonder that it poses a serious health problem.

In Australia, a major source of indoor air pollution is the air conditioning unit. The moist, warm coils inside both ducted and wall units are the perfect breeding environment for fungus, mould and bacteria.

Cleaning your filters or other parts of your air conditioner isn't enough. Within hours of removing built-up contaminants, a new colony begins to flourish.

Now, thanks to an Australian break-though, AerisGuard, the indoor air quality of homes around the world have been able to be significantly improved. When your air conditioner is treated by an approved applicator, AerisGuard is the only treatment available which not only cleans your air conditioning unit, but protects your home by inhibiting the growth of potentially toxic contaminants for 12 months.

Asthma? Allergies? Cold and flu-like symptoms? It could be your air conditioner

There's an entire ecosystem living and prospering within your air conditioner. These microorganisms are all looking for a comfortable place to live, with plenty to eat and relative safety. Your air conditioner is home sweet home. Who are these tiny invaders, and what are they doing there? They are:

	Mould
	Fungi
	Bacteria

When you turn on your air conditioner, it releases these contaminants inside your home. There are two dangerous elements to these micro-organisms:

	Certain types of fungi release molecules called mycotoxcins, which can have serious health implications to humans.
	The breakdown products of mould and bacteria produce tiny fragments of toxins - Endotoxins and Glucans - which are known allergens and have detrimental effects on the health of humans.

Symptoms

If any of your family suffers from any of these problems, it could be your home air conditioner that is causing it:

	Asthma attacks
	Allergies
	Hayfever
	Fatigue
	Sore throat
	Sore, dry eyes

To understand how your air conditioner can cause these problems, you need to know more about the lives of the culprits - the various species of mould, fungi and bacteria. For more detailed information, click here .

Mould

Mould is the common name for fungi that grow in a filamentous (thread-like) fashion and reproduce by means of spores; all moulds are fungi, but not all fungi are considered "moulds". There are over 20,000 known species of moulds.

The filaments of mould are known as hyphae. At the tips are rounded, blob-like forms called conidia or spores. These round fungal forms are relatively metabolically inactive - all they're doing is trying to find a nice, warm, moist place to live and multiply.

Moulds reproduce by making spores. Spores are microscopic; they vary in shape and size (2-100 micrometers - a micrometer is one millionth of a metre). The spores allow the organism to survive during periods where the conditions aren't ideal for growth (for example, some species don't like dry, cool environments).

Spores travel in several ways in search of a place to live - passively (by wind, for example), when disturbed (by a person), or when actively discharged by the mould (usually under moist conditions or high humidity).

Mould spores waft through the indoor and outdoor air continually. When mould spores land on a damp spot indoors, they begin eating whatever they are growing on. Moulds can grow on virtually any organic substance, such as oil, dust, compact discs (CD's), skin cells and dirt providing moisture and oxygen are present.

Symptoms from mould

The problem with airborne moulds is that you may be exposed to them and not realise that it's affected your health for quite some time. In fact, millions of Australians suffer from allergic reactions to moulds - but most don't realise what the culprit really is.

Some of these species of moulds produce airborne toxins called mycotoxins that can cause serious breathing difficulties, memory and hearing loss, dizziness, flu-like symptoms, and bleeding in the lungs. Some more serious health problem, such as a weakened immune system, may remain permanently.

One of the more dangerous mould strains is Stachybotrys (pronounced Stack-ee-BOT-ris). This black fungus releases toxic, microscopic spores that can cause everything from pulmonary hemorrhage among infants to chronic lung diseases that are usually irreversible.

Fungus

Fungi are neither animals nor plants - in fact, they command one of the "Five Kingdoms of Life" all to themselves. There are over 100,000 species of fungi, but only about 400 cause diseases relevant to man, animals, or plants.

Essentially, Fungi are plant-like organisms that lack chlorophyll. Without chlorophyll, which transforms light into energy, fungi must absorb food from others. Since they don't use light to make food, fungi can live in damp and dark places.

Many strains of fungi are extremely useful. The job of Fungi is to "eat" things when they are dead - a kind of natural recycling system. Fungi find nutrients within our rubbish -they eat the waste and turn it into soil. There are also "good" fungi such as the mushrooms we eat, and the yeast we use to make both bread and beer.

Bad fungus is just good fungus trying to do its job far too early - in other words, trying to eat before their food is actually dead. This includes the nutrients from the tissue of human beings (as in tinea or ringworm) and inside the lung and nasal passages (which causes diseases such as sinusitis).

Bacteria

Although bacteria consist of only one single cell, they're an amazingly complex group of living creatures. They can live in extreme temperatures, ranging from above the boiling point to low temperatures that would freeze human blood.

Bacteria "eat" everything from sugar and starch to sunlight, sulfur and iron. There's even a species of bacteria" Deinococcus radiodurans" that can withstand blasts of radiation 1,000 times greater than would kill a human being.

The entire ecosystem depends heavily upon the activity of bacteria. In their various forms, they're crucial for recycling organic matter such as leaves that fall off trees. Others digest some food within the human body that would otherwise be difficult to break down.

Most bacteria fall into one of three groups:

	Aerobic bacteria thrive in the presence of oxygen and require it for their continued growth and existence;
	Anaerobic, which cannot tolerate gaseous oxygen (such as those which cause bacterial food poisoning); and
	facultative anaerobes, which prefer growing in the presence of oxygen, but can continue to grow without it.

As there are thousands of species of bacteria, individual strains are identified and classified by a staining procedure. This procedure - the "Gram Stain", is named after the bacteriologist who discovered the procedure, there are Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. (These are differentiated by the structure of their cell walls.)

While there are many strains of "good bacteria", such as those which help us fight infection, there are also many species of disease causing bacteria. The diseases caused by bacteria are almost as diverse as the bugs themselves and include food poisoning, tooth ache (Source: Cosmetic Dentistry), anthrax, even certain forms of cancer.

Symptoms and Causes

Asthma

Asthma, a chronic, inflammatory lung disease characterized by recurrent breathing problems, is usually triggered by allergens. For some people, inhaling mould spores can cause an asthma attack.

According to the August 24, 2004 issue of the British Medical Journal, many asthmatics are far more sensitive to airborne moulds than to pollens or animal dander. The authors suggest that fungi are more likely to exacerbate asthma because the small size of fungal spores may allow them to reach the lower airways.

Unfortunately, moulds are present throughout the year, both indoors and outdoors. Since asthmatics are more susceptible indoors where moulds are more prevalent, it's vital to keep the indoor air quality clean.

Allergies

An allergy is a misguided reaction by our immune system in response to contact with certain foreign substances. The immune system becomes confused and primes itself to cause allergic reaction when stimulated by an allergen.

Inhaling mould spores can cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals. Allergic reactions to mould are common, these reactions can be immediate or delayed up to six hours. Allergic reactions include: headaches, red eyes, runny nose, sneezing, fatigue and dermatitis.

Allergies cannot be cured. However, reducing your contact with mould and mould spores is considered the best way to reduce your allergic reactions.

Common allergens include Pollens, Dust, Dust Mites, Moulds, Dander, Foods, Endotoxin and Glucans.

Hayfever

Mould spores in the air that are inhaled often attach themselves to the lining of the nose. Once an irritant such as this invades the body, the antibody, produced by our own immune system, called IgE, (Immunoglobulin E) binds with mast cells, which triggers the release of histamines. Histamines are the body's defense mechanism to flush the irritants out of the system. However, histamines cause inflammation, runny nose and watery eyes that make hayfever so unpleasant.

Fatigue

See Allergies.

Sore Throat

See Allergies.

Sore, Dry Eyes

See Allergies.

Respiratory Problems

Medical and scientific evidence strongly indicates that the first two years of an infant's life are highly influential on the development of respiratory health problems during adult years.

Headaches

See Allergies.

Tightness of chest

See Allergies.

Frequent colds

Colds are a virus. However, toxic microorganisms can weaken the immune system of an individual, making them more susceptible to viruses such as colds. Also see Allergies.

Flu or flu-like symptoms

See Frequent Colds and Allergies.

Sinusitis

Sinusitis means that sinuses are infected or inflamed. Fungus is considered to be the cause of almost all cases of the most frequently reported chronic disease, sinusitis. The Mayo Clinic research team looked at 210 patients with sinusitis and discovered more than 40 different kinds of fungi in their nasal passages. The study found fungus which was never thought to be there, in almost every case of chronic sinusitis.

Sometimes, fungal infections can cause acute sinusitis. Although fungi are abundant in the environment, they are usually at low levels that are harmless to healthy people, indicating that the human body has a natural resistance to them. Fungi, such as Aspergillus, can cause serious illness in people whose immune systems are not functioning properly. Some people suffer from Allergic Fungal Sinusitis (AFS)