In the early 1990s, 45 infants who lived within a ten-zipcode area of Cleveland, Ohio, became severely ill with bleeding in the lungs. Sixteen of these babies died.

The Centers for Disease Control led a study in 1994 to find out what was causing the strange frequency of lung bleeding, also called pulmonary hemorrhage (PH). The study found a strong correlation between the presence of toxic black mold, particularly stachybotrys atra, and the sick children. There was also noted a high incidence of smoking in those homes.

How Stachybotrys Causes Lung Bleeding

It is thought that poisons called mycotoxins, contained in the microscopic spores of stachybotrys, cause a further weakening of the relatively fragile blood vessels of the infants’ lungs. The addition of cigarette smoke in the home or other illnesses adds to the stress on the lungs making the lungs bleed. Bleeding in the lungs shows symptoms such as a chronic cough or nosebleeds.

The Cleveland case is likely to be an indication of a nationwide problem, as there have been over 100 similar cases of pulmonary hemorrhage in infants across the country, according to researchers at Case Western Reserve University, an NIH-funded research center.