Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Mar;50(2):155-61.
doi: 10.3109/02770903.2012.740122. Epub 2012 Nov 9.

Higher Environmental Relative Moldiness Index (ERMI) values measured in homes of asthmatic children in Boston, Kansas City, and San Diego

Stephen Vesper  1 , Charles Barnes, Christina E Ciaccio, Alan Johanns, Kevin Kennedy, Johnna S Murphy, Arcela Nunez-Alvarez, Megan T Sandel, David Cox, Gary Dewalt, Peter J Ashley
Affiliations

Higher Environmental Relative Moldiness Index (ERMI) values measured in homes of asthmatic children in Boston, Kansas City, and San Diego

Stephen Vesper et al. J Asthma. 2013 Mar.

Abstract

Objective: Mold in water-damaged homes has been linked to asthma. Our objective was to test a new metric to quantify mold exposures in asthmatic children's homes in three widely dispersed cities in the United States.

Methods: The Environmental Relative Moldiness Index (ERMI) metric was created by the US Environmental Protection Agency, with assistance by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), to quantify mold contamination in US homes. The ERMI values in homes of asthmatic children were determined for the three widely dispersed cities of Boston, Kansas City, and San Diego.

Results: 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 ERMI values than were found in homes randomly selected during the 2006 HUD American Healthy Homes Survey (AHHS) from the same geographic areas (n = 34, 22, and 28, respectively). Taken together, the average ERMI value in the homes with an asthmatic child 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 value 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.

Conclusion: High ERMI values were associated with homes of asthmatic children in three widely dispersed cities in the United States.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Interest

The synthesis of all three investigations was undertaken with a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement No. RW86922858-01-0 between HUD and the US EPA. The US EPA through its Office of Research and Development collaborated in the research described here. Although this work was reviewed by EPA and approved for publication, it may not necessarily reflect official EPA policy. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation by the EPA for use. Since MSQPCR technology is patented by the US EPA, the Agency has a financial interest in its commercial use.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of ERMI values of asthmatic children’s homes in Boston (circle), Kansas City (square), and San Diego (diamond) and in the combined, comparison AHHS homes (black dots). The ERMI values from each home in each study (including the AHHS samples) were assembled on the x-axis from lowest to highest. Because there are different numbers of samples in each study, the y-axis values are located on the scale based on each total set of samples. In Boston 76 equals 100%, for Kansas City 100% was based on 60, for San Diego 100% was based on 93, and AHHS with a total of 84 equals 100%.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Rudd RA, Moorman JE. Asthma incidence: data from the National Health Interview Survey, 1980–1996. J Asthma. 2007;44:65–70. - PubMed
    1. Institute of Medicine (IOM), National Academies of Science. Damp Indoor Spaces and Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; 2004. - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization (WHO) Europe. WHO Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality: Dampness and Mould. Copenhagen: WHO; 2009. - PubMed
    1. Vesper SJ, McKinstry C, Haugland RA, Wymer L, Ashley P, Cox D, DeWalt G, Friedman W. Development of an environmental relative moldiness index for homes in the U.S. J Occup Environ Med. 2007;49:987–990. - PubMed
    1. Vesper S. Traditional mould analysis compared to a DNA-based method of mould analysis. Crit Rev Micro. 2012;37:15–24. - PubMed

Publication types