October 8th, 2018
Asthmatic children in Boston (n=76), Kansas City (n=60) and San Diego (n=93) were found to be living in homes with significantly higher Environmental Relative Moldiness Index (ERMI) values than were found in homes randomly selected during the HUD 2006 American Healthy Homes Survey (AHHS) from the same geographic areas (n=34, 22, and 28, respectively). The differences between asthmatics’ home’s and the AHHS home’s ERMI values was statistically significant for all three cities. Taken together, the average ERMI value in the asthmatic’s homes was 8.73 compared to 3.87 for the AHHS homes. In addition, Kansas City homes of children with “Mild, Moderate or Severe Persistent Asthma” had average ERMI values of 12.4 compared to 7.9 for homes of children with only “Mild Intermittent Asthma”. Aspergillus niger was the only mold of the 36 tested which was measured in significantly greater concentration in the homes of asthmatic children in all three cities. The ERMI metric may be useful in describing mold contamination in the homes of asthmatic children in the US.