Mold Quiz

a) 30-50%. Studies show that consistent associations of dampness with adverse health effects, strongly suggesting a causation by dampness-related exposures.

a). Rhizopus fungi create black mold spots on old bread. It is never safe to eat mouldy bread as ingesting black mold can cause nausea, vomiting, and allergic reactions.

c) Number of cells. Molds are multicellular, filamentous organisms, while yeasts are aggregations of single-cell organisms which aggregate and act as an individual. Interestingly, some fungi can revert from a yeast form to a filamentous form, depending on certain ecological conditions.

Fungi under microscope;(left) Yeast (right) Mould (Photo source: Bob Blaylock, Wikimedia)

a). Molds are multicellular, filamentous organisms that belong to the kingdom of Fungi.

The correct answer is 8%, and the most common types (in two-thirds of cases) belong to the Penicillium/Aspergillus group.

a) they look like the Christian Holy Water sprinkler device, called aspergillum.

(up) Aspergillum (Photo Source: Pearson Scott Foresman, Wikipedia); (down) Aspergillus niger conidiophore (Photo source: Kathie Hodge, Flickr).

e) All of the above. Prolonged exposure to molds can induce many different health problems, with intensity depending from mild irritations in healthy people to life-threatening infections in immunocompromised patients.

d) All of the above. Furthermore, prolonged exposure to mold can manifest in symptoms ranging from rashes, allergies and flu-like symptoms to neurological damage and even death.

a) Penicillium/Aspergillus mold are the most common mold type in 38% of the investigated households.

b). Penicillin, the first antibiotic, was isolated and discovered in 1928 by Dr. Alexander Fleming from Penicillium mold.