NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Jun 09 - Children who live in homes with visible mold problems have higher risks for asthma and allergies, a new research review finds.Researchers found that across 61 international studies since the 1990s, children living in water-damaged, moldy homes were more likely to have asthma, wheezing problems or nasal allergies than their peers.
While the findings do not prove that mold is the culprit, lab research has suggested that exposure to mold and airborne mold spores can create inflammation in the airways, said coauthor Dr. Christina Tischer, of the German Research Center for Environmental Health in Neuherberg.
These latest findings underscore the importance of not only getting rid of visible mold, but also preventing it in the first place, she told Reuters Health in an email.
For their review, Tischer and her colleagues separated studies that examined visible mold -- the most obvious sign of a mold problem -- from the smaller number in which researchers measured mold components in household dust samples.
They found that overall, children in homes with visible mold were 49% more likely to have asthma than unexposed kids, and 39% more likely to have nasal allergies.
Exposure to mold components in house dust was linked to a lower risk of those outcomes, the researchers reported May 3rd in the European Respiratory Journal.
In theory, that finding could be due to differences between visible mold and the mold components that are part of the normal mix of bacteria, fungus and other microbes in indoor air.
"Visible mold patches at the walls, or a moldy odor, is indicating that the normal microbial composition is out of kilter, which is most often due to dampness, excessive moisture or building damages," Dr. Tischer said.
The U.S. Environment Protection Agency has information on household mold and how to get rid of it, at http://www.epa.gov/mold/index.html.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/jVqblD
Eur Resp J 2011.
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