Mold exposure in the home raises the risk of asthma in middle-aged adults, according to an Australian study.
The more mold participants reported seeing in their home, the greater their asthma symptoms, researchers said. And men are four times more likely to have non-allergic asthma than women due to mold exposure.
"The mold exposure that we were talking about is the typical mold that we all see in our homes from time to time, that is, mold that you see in the wet areas of the house, e.g., bathroom, kitchen and laundry," John Burgess, who co-led the study with colleague Desiree Meszaros, told Reuters Health.
About 25 million Americans are living with asthma, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, 7 million of them being children.
Asthma typically begins in childhood, and frequently occurs in kids with allergies. But researchers chose to conduct their study on adults.
"We did this because in older adults, all asthma is not necessarily the same," said Burgess, a researcher with the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne. "In this age group, non-allergic asthma is more common - we surmised that the risk of having 'non-allergic asthma' related to indoor air pollutants might be increased in this older population.
Researchers followed participants from 1968-2004, and based their findings on questionnaire responses.
Almost half of subjects said they had mold on a home surface at some point, and one third saw mold within the last year. The study's team said recent household mold exposure was associated with a 26 percent greater risk of having asthma, 34 percent greater odds of wheezing and 30 percent greater odds of chest tightness. And authors add that the more rooms with mold, the worse the asthma symptoms.
The U.S. Environmental Protection urges people to clean up promptly and fix any water problems or leaks to avoid mold, among other tips, but Burgess puts it short and sweet.
"For most domestic mold, keep it simple - clean it off and make sure that the place remains dry and well ventilated," Burgess said.
