Date published: 2007/03/04
The BBC says:
Damp and mould-infested houses could be the cause of permanent asthma in children, researchers have said.
Poor housing conditions are already linked to the illness but there is debate whether they cause asthma, or simply trigger attacks.
Finnish researchers writing in the European Respiratory Journal say they have proved this after surveying the homes of more than 300 children.
However, UK asthma experts are still not convinced mould can cause asthma.
Asthma is now the most common chronic disease of school-age children, and rates have risen steadily in recent years in industrialised countries.
Dr Juha Pekkanen, from the National Public Health Institute in Kuopio, suggests that as many as one in five cases of child asthma may be caused by moisture and mould in the home.
His team found that the severity of asthma increased alongside the severity of the damp in living areas.
In all, the homes of 121 asthmatic children were compared to those of 241 non-asthmatic children.
As well as a detailed interview and allergy test to rule out specific asthma triggers in the environment, experienced civil engineers ranked all the houses in terms of the level of damp and presence of mould.
...
Dr Michael Burr, a researcher at Cardiff University whose work on mould and asthma is funded by the charity Asthma UK, said: "This study suggests that Finnish children with newly-diagnosed asthma are more likely than other children to have moisture damage and mould in their homes."Together with existing evidence, this suggests that mould probably triggers respiratory symptoms and may contribute to causing asthma.
"However, it is not possible to distinguish conclusively between the role of moisture damage and mould as a trigger factors and any causal link with childhood asthma based on the current evidence."
Yes, this could be a classic case of confusing correlation and causation. What they have found, which is no great surprise, is a link between poor housing and disease. But there is also a link between income and disease, and that is almost always more significant. The Finnish team just seems to have decided to focus on one thing and find a correlation. Presumably someone else could focus on some other aspect of the housing (e.g. if it is near a main road) and equally well find a correlation. It proves very little. Of course it could well be that the conclusion, even if it has not been proven, is correct. But why have the rates of asthma "risen steadily in recent years in industrialised countries"? It is hard to believe that the housing stock is that much worse than it used to be (which ought to be true if you believe damp in housing is a main factor in asthma).
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