Surely before we lived in houses, we were living outside breathing in all kinds of leaf and wood mould. Has the mould changed, our bodies changed in how they react, or have people throughout history always got sick from mould?
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Mold is actually not super common in open spaces. Anything that gets regular sunlight will probably be too warm/dry for mold to grow, or it will be outcompeted by moss and other plants. Mold grows in damp, dark spaces, where there’s not enough light for other plants to grow. Wet caves, which would be great for mold, aren’t great places for people to live in: too wet and cold.
However, we now build houses that act like caves, and we pump water into these caves for our own convenience. When the water leaks, we create a damp, dark space that is ideal for mold growth but is also in close, sustained proximity to our living space. This is an entirely unnatural situation. Mold exposure also takes time; simply walking by a mold growth probably won’t cause serious problems, assuming you’re not snorting the mold as you walk by it.
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*The dose makes the poison*
Living outdoors, we’re exposed to a lot of different molds. The amount we inhale is small unless we have our noses next to the fungus.
Humans have since built structures to live in that can leak from the roof, floor, or from plumbing. This moisture can lead to mold spores in higher concentrations than encountered outside, eventually negatively affecting our health.
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