RealTime Laboratories Offering Direct-To-Consumer Mycotoxin Test

Texas-based RealTime Laboratories has decided to offer its mycotoxin test directly to consumers.

The test is used to determine the level of exposure individuals have had to mold. Some forms of mycotoxin poisoning can lead to respiratory distress, memory loss, seizures and even death.

“This is an important test for the health of individuals who are or may have been exposed to a home or building, which is harboring mold, particularly water-damaged buildings,” said RealTime Chief Executive Officer David Murcott in a statement. “Direct access testing simplifies the process significantly for consumers.”

The urine-based test costs $699. Consumers in 26 states can order the testing kit and return it to Real- Time’s lab in Carrollton, Texas. The company claims a turnaround time within 10 days, and test results are sent by encrypted email.

RealTime is not without controversy. Although it focuses on mold exposure, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not issued any data about the trending of reported cases of exposure, suggesting such cases are fairly isolated. An article published last year by CDC physicians in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report evinced extreme skepticism about using urine-based mycotoxin testing.

“CDC does not recommend biologic testing of persons who work or live in water-damaged buildings nor routine environmental sampling for mold,” the article said. “To identify possible mold contamination, visual inspection is the first step.”

RealTime’s medical director, pathologist Dennis Hooper, M.D., practiced at Los Angeles County King- Drew Medical Center in the 1990s. Hooper drew close scrutiny in a 2004 Los Angeles Times investigation of shoddy care provided at the hospital, including his repeated misdiagnosis of patients, including oncology cases. The reporting led to Hooper resigning from a subsequent job at a hospital in San Antonio and being placed on five years of probation by the California Medical Board in 2006.

RealTime’s spokesperson did not respond to phone calls and an email requesting comment.

Takeaway: RealTime’s urine-based mycotoxin test is being offered directly to consumers, but questions have been raised about the necessity of such an assay.