Mold, cockroaches linked to asthma and allergies

[n2doc]

Two new studies link critters and mold to the development of allergies and asthma.
Mon, Jun 13 2011 at 8:00 AM EST

Environmental pollution has often been linked to allergies and asthma, but two new studies were published last week that shed new light on why kids in one house develop these conditions while kids exposed to similar pollution levels in the house next door do not.

In the first study, researchers at Columbia University looked at several New York City neighborhoods. In one, nearly one in five kids — or 19 percent — have asthma, while in others, the asthma rate is as low as 3 percent. Pollution sources, such as car traffic, were similar for the neighborhoods, but the study's authors found that it was exposure to cockroaches that raised the kids' risk for developing asthma.

The study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, found that nearly one in four kids living in neighborhoods with high asthma rates were allergic to cockroaches, compared to one in 10 kids living in areas where asthma is less common. The children living in neighborhoods with high rates of asthma were twice as likely to carry antibodies against a cockroach protein in their blood, indicating that they had been exposed to the insects and were also allergic to them.

Another study, this one from researchers at the German Research Center for Environmental Health in Neuherberg, looked at the link between mold and asthma. The study, published in the European Respiratory Journal, found that children who live in homes with visible mold problems have a greater risk of developing asthma and allergies than children who don't live in moldy homes.

more
http://www.mnn.com/health/healthy-spaces/blogs/mold-cockroaches-linked-to-asthma-and-allergies

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Fascinating.

[Brickbat]

2. There was a Twins player a few years back who had to use bats not made of ash wood -- they found out

he was terribly allergic to cockroach droppings and the bats were full of it.

[Curmudgeoness]

4. Ewwwww. How did so much cockroach droppings

get INTO the bats? This is disturbing.

[Curmudgeoness]

3. Good luck avoiding cockroaches and mold.

One or the other is everywhere!

[junkyard angel]

5. I have lived in places with incredible amounts of roaches

and never gotten an allergy or asthma. Now granted, I was an adult when this all started so perhaps that is different but asthma and allergies are caused by a compromised immune system. So no one would go 'ew' if someone stated that they were allergic to cat hair but it's the same deal.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. you're lucky.

I grew up in a dirty unairconditioned house. Lots of roaches, and pets and cigarette smoke from the parental units and pollution.

I have terrible allergies and asthma, and have had the allergies all my life. The asthma developed later. Autoimmune problems run in my mom's family so that's where I got them.

All this propaganda about "if your kid is raised in a dirty house they will have a stronger immune system" sounds like bull to me.

[astral]

7. Living in a moldy house will make you sick. Period.

It will slowly eat away at your health and when you go to the doctor they are not very likely to figure it out. I do not know about the cockroach thing, though, I've only lived in one apartment that had roaches and that was very long ago.

Mold, though, ugh!~ I found out the hard way. MOLD IS DEADLY.

Even to a healthy person, when you have prolonged regular exposure.

And you know what mold smells like, well, you can't always smell it.