Re: Feather tracks in lens coatings - any preventative?

Charlie+ writes:

Feather tracks in lens coatings - any preventative?
Slightly off topic as this lens coating is on a camera lens, and I
haven't yet seen such damage on any of my own microscope lenses.
Under the microscope these tracks look like a powdered hoare frost in
the coating and are usually called fungus - I don't know if this would
be a correct term as it may be chemical reaction of some sort rather
than biological but it does seem to spread very slowly from a point
(either damage or an inclusion or weakness in the original multi layer
coatings rather than from origination randomly across the lens
surface.

I've yet to see much real scientific analysis of what is called lens
fungus, but after examining several victimized lenses, my suspicion is
that it is indeed a fungus. Now anything growing has to have food and
specifically nitrogen to live and grow, and in the case of lens fungi
this seems to be either dust collected in corners of the lens assembly
such as around the retaining edges holding lens elements, or maybe oil
or other buildup on the lens surfaces. The branching pattern you
describe seems typical of fungal growth. I don't believe the fungus
eats the glass or coating itself; as a fungus it must survive on foreign
animal or vegetable matter (which is the nature of fungi--they don't
synthesize like plants or animals, just rearrange stuff from dead ones)
contaminating the lens. Or perhaps oils or greases used to lubricate
the mechanisms in a lens assembly. But the etching type damage occurs
because the chemistry of the organism produces acids which then react
with the glass or the coatings. It seems astonishing, but the energy
represented in a little inert dust is transformed into destructive
chemical action by a living organism. Given the exo-digestive nature of
fungi, the destructive effectcs are not so astonishing. They're sort of
an inside-out stomach lining.

Prevention? Take away the food and/or moisture, or favorable
temperatures. Cleanliness, dessicants.

What I haven't figured out is why we don't see this same effect
everywhere, just on lenses. Why not on glass windows or glassware in a
cupboard? Or maybe I'm just not looking properly.
.