Hello Truefire,
I research spalting as part of my PhD work. First off, I want to point you to this blog entry:
http://www.finewoodworking.com/item...ociated-with-spalted-wood-and-debunking-myths
And for a bit more in-depth:
Yes, the spores could land on your other wood. But if the wood is dry, the spores can't germinate. Get the wood and they might. Some fungal spores can live for centuries, others for hours in stasis. Wood decay fungi aren't know for their great ability to remain dormant for long periods of time. I'd estimate that most have stasis lives under a year.
The article someone referred to about some woodworker who died of some lung infection from turning spalting wood is bunk. This spalting paranoia is one of my biggest pet peeves. I cannot say this enough
wood dust is far more harmful to your lungs than wood-spalting fungal spores! Wood dust is a carcinogen, as is all fine particulate matter. Fungi that spalt wood can't spalt you. Where is the wood? Wood decay fungi utilize cellulose and lignin - components of the wood cell wall. So unless you have some mystery tree growing inside you, there is no need to worry.
A lot of the diseases people refer to in regards to spalted wood are from several other causes:
1) not wearing a respirator. And from here we go into the whole 'wood dust will kill you, so don't blame the fungus' irritation
2) mold spores
from the air landing on your wood and doing some light surface colonization. Some people have
allergies to these molds.
3) people with compromised immune systems being near spalted wood. If you have AIDS, asthma, etc, you shouldn't work with spalted wood. Some of the molds can irritate your respiratory track and allow other infections in
You may be interested to know that the whole 'black mold causing asthma' stories that abounded several years ago have all been debunked. Black mold, while it may produce mycotoxins, would have to be inhaled in
enormous quantities to do any real damage, unless one already had asthma to begin with.
You can tell your wife to relax as well. If she has ever been hiking in the woods then she has been exposed to the exact same spores that are in your woodshop. She didn't die from her hike and she won't die from this either. People are far, far to excitable when it comes to fungus. There may be lots of woodworkers out there preaching about how spalted wood did XX to them, but I think you'll find that if you question them, they didn't have proper air filtration in their shops and took a lot of wood dust in their lungs. I don't know of any mycologists, young or old, who have any lung issues, and we work with fungus 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for years.
If you are still super concerned, I suggest googling some of the most common spalting fungi and checking out their modes of action. See if they produce mycotoxis. Here are a few to try:
Trametes versicolor
Xylaria polymorpha
Polyporus brumalis
Chlorociboria sp.
And feel free to let me know if you need more information. Remember,
don't blame the fungi, because it isn't their fault!