As recently as the early 1990s, many of those claiming to be ill from breathing bad air at work and at home were classified as having a psychiatric rather than physical problem.
The most common "psychosomatic" symptoms included eye irritation, fatigue, tiredness, increased incidence of trivial infections and depression. There were also indications of difficulties with the body's immune system.
University of Helsinki researchers initially based at Helsinki University Hospital for Allergy and Skin Diseases
rejected the idea that these illnesses weren't real and sought a toxicological answer to these problems. But first the team needed an efficient way to detect suspected microbes or the substances they produce. A team headed by Prof Mirja Salkinoja-Salonen provided answers.
The group was the first to develop an assay to detect and quantify "peptide toxins" generated by a variety of microbes. These can be found in industrial processes, foods, indoor air and even in the moisture of old mouldy buildings. "Our work is also the first demonstration of a possible direct human health hazard from microbially made peptide toxins in our living environment," said Prof Salkinoja-Salonen, who is currently based at Viikki Biocenterstet on the outskirts of Helsinki.
The assay is based on an unlikely ingredient- boar sperm. The sperm cells provide an effective toxin detection system because they are low in sticky cholesterol, and therefore permeable and highly sensitive to a variety of poisons.
Using a spermatozoan motility test that they developed, it was possible to isolate toxin-producing organisms from dust and building materials collected from "sick buildings".
She and her researchers are focusing on how the toxins affect the sperm cell's power supply system, the mitochondrion. Poisons released by Bacillus cereus (a cause of food poisoning) and Streptomyces griseus make a tunnel across an inner membrane of the mitochondrion, which then swells and blows up. These toxins can also kill B-lymphocytes, a key component in the body's immune system.
Her toxin test system helped a French potato chip company solve a microbe problem after complaints about its product. The sperm test detected B. cereus. In another case, a previously unknown toxin was found on the walls of a children's day care centre.
Primarily because of the multiple-award winning work of researcher Dr Maria Andersson, who works with her and developed the boar sperm test, the toxins can be detected easily and at minute concentrations. Microbial toxins survive boiling, baking and cooking, making them extremely troublesome for the food industry.
Prof Salkinoja-Salonen confirmed toxins arising from cyanobacteria in water (which often lead to algal blooms in rivers and lakes) and also found that other food poisoning toxins seemed to be more prevalent than ever.
A fascinating aspect of the work has been the ability to link toxic damage to particular parts of the sperm cells to specific human symptoms. Toxins affecting the mitochondrion are associated with damage to natural killer cells (a part of immune systems) and may make a person sensitive to common infections.
They may also be responsible for fatigue "because they dissipate the cell's energy resources". Agents which damage sperm cell membranes may explain toxic irritation of mucous membranes and eyes.