Researchers say that the prevalence of mold in low-income communities may be leading to higher rates of asthma in children.
It’s been known for some time now that there’s a link between low-income communities and asthma, but further data is needed in order to truly understand this connection. With this in mind, researchers at Columbia University have embarked on a project funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that aims to shed some more light on this important issue.
According to NY1 News, researcher Matt Perzanowski and his team are focusing the bulk of their study on the presence of mold and how it affects asthmatic children between the ages of seven and 11. The goal is to determine the role that this hazardous fungus — in addition to mice, cockroaches and pollution — plays in the development of asthma and other chronic respiratory diseases among individuals who reside in certain neighborhoods.
“We think that those exposures early in life can be important, and that may help to start to explain why asthma prevalence in East Harlem is so much higher than on the Upper East Side,” Perzanowski told the source. “We know that in low-income communities, reporting mold exposure is more common. So we think it could be related to asthma.”
As researchers learn more about asthma, hopefully they’ll be able to come up with more effective methods of treatment for the millions of people who suffer from it. In the meantime, there are steps that people can take around the home to reduce their symptoms and improve their quality of life, such as investing in custom air purifiers. Check out the Air Purifiers Direct 2U website today for more information!