Are There More Spores Outdoors?...

…and do they have human health effects?

Below are excerpts from an article in the December 2007 issue of Indoor Environment Connections by Dr. Harriet Burge Director of Aerobiology, EMLab P&K, San Bruno, Calif. She is an expert in the field of Indoor Air Quality. You can read the entire article here. - Way Cool

Yes, they do. Several papers in the literature document the relationship between asthma outbreaks and especially high concentrations of specific spore types. “New Orleans Asthma” is a syndrome blamed on basidiospores. Thunderstorm asthma has been blamed on a particular type of ascospore. In addition, clear relationships have been found between increased hospital admissions for asthma and outdoor spore concentrations. In the American Southwest, outdoor Alternaria exposure may actually initiate asthma in children.

Also consider the fact that gardening is considered to be a healthy form of exercise. You are outdoors breathing the “fresh” air (assuming you don’t live in the Los Angeles basin!) and are encouraging things to grow. You happily pull weeds and dig holes for the plants, breathing in the wonderful odors of the microbial volatiles responsible for the odor of new-turned soil along with all the spores (including those of Stachybotrys) that are growing on the dead leaves you are digging up.

On the other hand, gardening has never been reported to cause “toxic” symptoms such as headache, fatigue (other than that induced by using your muscles), memory loss, etc.