Aspergillosis or Fungus Diseases of the Lung Caused by Earth-born Pathogens in Soil and Compost
Question from Robin:
I am an old friend of Nancy Schibanoff and Sharrie Woods. Have known them both close over 25 years…as our sons grew up together. Sharrie told me about a lecture you gave within the last several months about being careful not to inhale fungus in the garden.
As it turns out I was in the UK working in my son and daughter in laws garden which had not been touched in years. As they had just moved in after it was remodeled I wanted to help them gut the garden so they could get an idea of how much space they had to work with. We were outside for about 7 hours. I came down with a horrible cough…and upon my return to Del Mar…had coughed my way to a pnuemothroax….
My question for you is, I was wondering if I would be able to get a copy of your lecture. I would like to give it to my Dr.’s at Scripps Clinic…They need some education…because they did not get it when I explained how I got the cough. Thank you so much.
Answer from Pat:
Every hobby and profession comes with some hazards and wise precautions one can follow in order to protect oneself. This is especially true of gardening. However, working outdoors for seven hours in a garden, even a long-neglected garden and then subsequently coming down with a sore throat and later a collapsed lung might or might not have been caused by gardening. Your illness might have been caused by a bug you caught some other way. It might not come from a
> fungus. However I am happy to tell you a couple of precautionary tales I have been telling my classes which can help one to avoid some health hazards connected to gardening. Your question and my answer could help other gardeners so I am posting this correspondence on my website.https://patwelsh.com/wpmu/. (I am primarily an author of books on gardening, but I also keep up this blog and give many talks and slide shows on gardening during one month in spring and one month in
fall.)
Though I sometimes use notes I do not write out my lectures. Therefore, I am sorry I cannot send you a printed copy of the lecture heard by your friends. I can, however, answer your question. You can print out this answer to your question and give it to your doctors.
A rare gardening hazard but one of which gardeners should be aware is the intake of fungus from dry leaves or from compost into the lungs. The disease is called aspergilliosis. I hope you do not have it. If your doctors have never heard of aspergillosis I would refer them to an article in the Lancet medical journal written by a Dr. David Waghorn who treated a gardener at Wycombe Hospital in Buckinghamshire in May of last year. Unfortunately, in this case the patient died,but it is likely that his lungs were already unhealthy due to his having smoked and also to his previous work in a foundary. This is a rare disease but gardeners should know not to breath in dust from compost or from dead leaves and debris. Here is a link to more information:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2116523/Gardener-killed-by-fungus-in-his-compost.html There are many other links on the Internet that give the symptoms, dangers, and treatments of aspergillosis. Another disease that has been blamed on compost is legionnaires disease. Lung fibrosis is another mold-related disease affecting breathing. This one comes from spores that live on green rotting garbage or green rotting compost.
Aspergillosis doesn’t always come from compost. You can also get it from breathing in the warm dust from the back of a horse when curry combing a horse. I used to be a horsewoman and often groomed horses, but was careful not to breath in the dust. I often put a wet handkerchief over my nose when currying the back of my horse when his back was near head height. A friend of mine whom I used to ride with got aspergillosis from curry combing the back of her horse in winter when he had his thick winter coat and he had fungus on his dusty back under the saddle and her nose was too close to it as she cleaned him. Doubtless he had also been rolling in the pasture and that too got into his hair. Personally I believed in washing a horse off with the hose after riding and then you don’t have all that dust. The same applies to garden dust when raking up dead leaves. Just wet it down a bit so you don’t breath in all that dust.
A gardener whom I know got aspergillosis from compost and was treated for it and has survived. When she first took up gardening and began composting for the first time, she was so crazy about the smell of compost that she used to hold handfuls of freshly made compost close to her nose and breathe in the smell of it because it smelled so good to her. She just loved the earthy aroma of it. She told me she did this quite often and after a while she came down with a serious fungus disease of her lungs and it also affected the skin on her face, turning it red. My friend had to take a specific anti-fungal medicine for a long time to get rid of this lung disease and it was a serious disease. Even now it comes back occasionally when the weather is hot and moist and it affects her face when she gets hot working in the garden and it makes her face red. However, in her case it did not lead to a collapsed lung.
Because of this, I now warn the new gardeners, especially, in my classes not to put their noses close to compost and not to breath the fumes into their lungs. Don’t breath in the warm steam that emits from the top of a hot compost pile as you toss and turn it because this probably contains spores of fungus that can attach themselves to the inside of your lungs and grow there. On the other hand as a child I often spent time in a potting shed filled with the smell of compost and never got sick from it. So we have to have some balance and just use common sense.
The same thing goes for various garden dusts. One should not allow the dust from perlite, bone meal, blood meal, or granulated fertilizers to get into one’s lungs. This just means to use common sense in avoiding breathing in dust. On the other hand we do not need to become paranoid about it. I grew up on a farm. As a child I was always around farm animals and as a teen ager I was also around the dust made by straw, hay, chicken feed, animal bedding and manures. Photographs in an old album show me as a child close to a spreader liming a field and plenty of dust in the air and on my overalls. We often worked inside the barns and chicken houses and I’m sure I breathed in tons of bad things, but somehow I survived all this exposure to various agricultural dusts. Instead of making me sick, I got healthier which is the case for the majority of farm kids. Farm kids are known to have built in immunities to many diseases and they are not often subject to allergies having built up an immunity in childhood.
Another hazard to be wary of in a garden is getting a rose thorn in one’s hand. If one gets a rose thorn in one’s hand one should immediately go indoors, remove the thorn, clean the wound with alcohol or disinfectant, apply antibiotic ointment, and cover the wound with a bandaid. If you can’t get the thorn out soak it in hot water and apple cider vinegar to get it out. The same applies to bromeliads and also to thorns in sphagnum moss. These three garden thorns can carry a pathogen called Sporotrichosis or “rose gardener’s disease” a fungal infection that can afflict farmers and gardeners who have not taken care of a small hand wound. It can infect a wound, travel up the gardener’s arm, turn green, and even cause death if not treated with the correct antibiotics.
A belated thank you for this information. I passed it on to my Dr. at Scripps Clinic… and hope to get a CT scan on my lung in the next few weeks…and hopefully get the OK to get on a plane to visit my son & daughter in law in the UK soon. All the best…
Good news you are getting it checked and I sincerely hope you can go to UK. Summer weather was lovely when I was there summer before last.
I contracted the aspergillis and i am not better..what was the tx they were put on? I am afraid to garden now after 25 years! I have been coughing for 5 months!
Hi my name is Darcie I have been coughing for 3 month I I live in a house that was a hay barn. I have been told I have pneumonia I have been on 5 different Anabolic. I still feel like crap and still being told I have pneumonia. Is it possible. I picked up a lung fungus from this house its was convention. On 1987 the floor is cement no padding. I feel like I’m drowning. And I’m scared nothing they have gave me is working.
If your doctors say you have pneumonia most likely that’s what you have. Sometimes it takes a long time to recover. Also, I grew up on a farm and spent a great deal of time in barns. My brother did also. Instead of making us sick, our exposure to all manner of dusts and fungi on our farm gave us immunities most folks don’t have. We are both a lot healthier than the general population. Statistics show that this is true of many people who were once farm kids. Today in America and some foreign countries, many people live in homes that were once barns and this is the first time I’ve heard of the possibility that living in a former barn might lead to illness. Most barns are a lot dryer than houses, and this is a positive rather than a negative factor. If you are worried, however, I suggest you print up the article I wrote and posted on the subject of Aspergillosis and show it to your doctors. A medical test can show if your problem is due to a fungus. The article I mentioned that appeared in the British medical journal called the Lancet was published in 2010. Your doctors can look it up.
Back on nov.2013 after raking leaves I come down with flue like symptoms,when to a dr.she say is allergy,give some antibiotic,first round,my throat was red and burning,another dr.said my tonsil are hard,I have tonsillitis, they need to come out,dont have any simptoms of tonsillitis,april 14 they come out,biopsy show a abundant colonies of actinomyces,postal nasal drip after my tonsil removed, I went to see a Infection specialist dr,and said I don’t have acinomyces I have allergies,I when to see an Allergy dr.she say I don’t have allergies,she put me on penicilline 2000 mg a day for 3 months for actinomyces,I don’t feel good half of the time,fatigue,sleepy,feel like I have been drinking,I don’t drink,and general don’t feel good like I used to before this happens.Now she say I don’t have actinomyces.feel the same.
Whereas gardening is in most cases a safe and healthy occupation, there are hazards of which we need to be aware. One such hazard is the ingesting of dust, which is why I deplore the use of electric blowers. Hand raking of leaves is usually safe, but if it causes a cloud of dust and we breath it into our lungs, this dust may contain pathogens or particles that are harmful to health. I sincerely hope that the passage of time, eating healthy food and perhaps herbal remedies will eventually heal your condition.
Luis, I suggest you research herbal remedies for lungs, such as those mentioned on the following link and others: http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/9-best-herbs-lung-cleansing-respiratory-support/ Modern medicine does not have the answer to every ailment. Some illnesses and auto-immune diseases are rare and mysterious. In such cases, ancient or Chinese remedies may provide relief from conditions that prescription drugs, all of which have side effects, cannot cure. I sincerely hope you find the path to abundant health.
Been coughing for years. I think it’s an accumulation and my lungs/bronci have had enough. Hay barn, spray cooking oil, cleaning the chicken house, and brushing my dirty horse. Just wanted to say thanks for the link. I’m going to try some of that stuff!
Thank you for your comment. Yes, do not breath in dust! We used to wash our horses prior to curry combing. That’s really better than dry brushing in my opinion and gets out all the sweat.
i live in what was a cow pasture for 20 years. my house was the first to be built and since a house has been built each year for the past 4. each time theland is disturbed for a new foundation i have gotten a bronchitis, that lasts longer each year. Is it possible that i have something related to the disturbance of the clay soil that is filled with cow dung, chicken dung fertilizer, and mold? eugenia
There is no way that I can answer your question definitively, since too many variables are involved. For example, this winter there has been a bad bronchial flu circulating around. The best protection is to keep hands washed and a bottle of bacteria-killing solution in one’s car to use assiduously after every trip to the grocery store. However, a friend of mine lives on a hillside overlooking the ocean, on land where there has never been a pasture. She too suffered from a respiratory disease when the folks across the street from her tore down their home and bulldozed their property causing clouds of dust to blow in the direction of her house and garden. On the plus side she has told me that her lungs are now 100% healthy again. For her, the solution to most illnesses has been keeping her weight under control, avoiding junk food, eating a healthy diet mainly of fruits, vegetables, and fish, avoiding meat, taking vigorous daily walks, and never smoking. Unfortunately we cannot avoid all the hazards of modern life. We can, however, do our best to confront and conquer the obstacles as best we can. Recently I received a similar query to yours and I suggested researching herbal or Chinese remedies for lung problems. I suggest you ask your health food store if they have a recommendation but also do your own research online. If you try one remedy and after a decent trial period find it does not work for you, take that back and try another and so forth. Eventually you may discover a product that returns you to perfect health. For ideas, here is just one link but there are many more: http://preventdisease.com/news/14/012214_15-Plants-Herbs-Boost-Lung-Health-Heal-Respiratory-Infections.shtml. My philosophy is that when life sends us a curve ball, we have to outwit it as best we can. Sometimes our own ingenuity and intuition can lead us to the perfect solution, but it may take more than one try.
What is the Chinese remedy for removing aspergillosis mold from my lungs?
Thank you.
I am not an expert on Chinese herbs or other medications and suggest you consult a Chinese herbalist or doctor.
In 2007 we removed a large Locust tree near our house, a very moist area that had limited sun exposure.
Stump grinding the roots was coming into common use.
The musty odor it caused hung outside
for weeks and inside for months after. Some of the finer dust particles came inside due to the furnce air intake. I have a minor airborn allergy, but also an autoimune condition. The autoimune condition flared up with a vengeance that summer.
Do you have any info on stump grinding causing fungus infections or reactions?
I feel very sympathetic in regard to your story. I am so sorry this happened to you. However, I have never heard of negative effects from stump grinding other than the problems with nitrogen depletion in the soil as the sawdust rots thus subtracting nitrogen. But this has nothing to do with human reactions. Your health problems sound more as if they might be related to mould. My first suggestion is to install a flashing wall outside your home where this damp shady area exists. This will protect your home from rot. Also have the interior of your home tested to see if there is a mould problem. You need a professional to advise you on this problem and how to solve it.
Secondly I suggest you plant the area where the stump was ground up with a plant or plants that can flourish in damp shade such as azaleas, camellias, and hydrangeas. If you see yellow leaves on any of these plants be sure to add a more nitrogen fertilizer.
Hi Pat, I need your advice. I recently had a lot of mushroom soil put in my flower beds. I planted a lot of plants in the soil on the same day. Two days later I noticed some slivers on my arms. It has been two months now and I have slivers all over my body. It is so strange. Some slivers came out right away and several others took several weeks to show up.. My dermatologist says I probably only had a few slivers and my skin is just reacting to them. However I know my body and every bump has a sliver in it. I have saved the slivers. My regular doctor said it was my imagination yet treated me with antibiotics and cream. My slivers are worse now. Any suggestions?
As you know, I am not a doctor. Additionally my definition of the word “sliver” is a little thin piece of wood that has entered the skin accidentally due to contact with un-sanded wood. Slivers need to be removed with tweezers.
I suggest you go to a dermatologist with your problem, which may be an allergic reaction to a plant in your garden. I also suggest you always wear garden gloves when working in the garden.
I ran across your site this evening while researching the disease that nearly killed my mother in 1972. I’d like to share a short account of that. I had joined the U.S. Army in 1971 and by ’72, I was stationed in West Germany. My mother in 1971 had started raising fishing worm on our farm to sell to local lakes and fishermen in our area of Southern Cali. Her business was becoming quite successful. By the Spring of ’72, with worm business profits projected to exceed even my fathers annual salary, she came down with a severe cough and suffered with what was thought at the time was a rare form of pneumonia. She was also a Tuberculosis survivor at the time. Her illness become worse. Numerous hospitalizations later, treated with every antibiotic known to medicine, she was finally diagnosed with Aspergillosis. At the time, in 1972, modern medicine had no cure. The best specialists in the State threw up their hands in frustration. In 1972, she became the 75th person in American Medical history to have contracted this disease. Of all the recorded cases there was only one known survivor at that time. Even singer/crooner Bing Crosby, an avid rose gardener, had died from this very same type of fungus as well. In my mothers case, she had come in contact with it through the worm castings and soil she handled every day. Her physician finally told her to just go home and prepare to die, noting more could be done for her. She was days, perhaps weeks away from death. My father, on the other hand, wasn’t going to give up hope. He somehow stumbled across a Chinese Herbal shop in China town, San Diego. He repeated the symptoms my mother had to the herbalist, he in turn, told my father, the disease was quite common in China among farmers. Chinese medicine had had a cure for it for centuries. He prescribed 24 different herbs that had to be brewed into a tea. My mother began her treatment immediately. One month later, under her own power, she walked into her doctors office and said she was 100% better. The doctor could not accept the obvious, even though it was sitting across the desk from him, smiling at him. He ordered a full testing of her lungs and heart, kept her in hospital for three days, until he and the specialists were forced to declare her free and clear of Aspergillosis. She became the second only known survivor of this disease in U.S. medical history during the 1970’s. She went on and lived until 2005, and passed away quietly from a stroke at age 80.
When I was a nursing student in Northern California in the mid 1990’s, we had a patient with aspergillis pneumonia- a young healthy man who worked as a landscaper. He was treated successfully with IV antifungal Amphotericin B. However, the med does have very uncomfortable side effects- alternating shaking chills and hot flashes, earning it the nurse’s nickname “amphoterrible”. We were told there was an increase in these cases in NorCal primarily in HIV positive and other immune-suppressed persons ; although this young man was not HIV+.
Thanks so much for telling me this. My friend who had this problem tragically died from cancer but I don’t think there was any connection. She had been a PSA flight attendant for years and several friends of hers also died. We thought it was radiation.