Association between fungal spore exposure in inner-city schools and asthma morbidity.

Background: Home fungus exposures may be associated with development or worsening of asthma. Little is known about the effects of school/classroom fungus exposures on asthma morbidity in students.

Objective: To evaluate the association of school-based fungus exposures on asthma symptoms in both fungus-sensitized and nonsensitized students with asthma.

Characterization of the bacterial and fungal microbiome in indoor dust and outdoor air samples: a pilot study.

Environmental microbes have been associated with both protective and adverse health effects in children and adults. Epidemiological studies often rely on broad biomarkers of microbial exposure (i.e.

Projected carbon dioxide to increase grass pollen and allergen exposure despite higher ozone levels.

One expected effect of climate change on human health is increasing allergic and asthmatic symptoms through changes in pollen biology. Allergic diseases have a large impact on human health globally, with 10-30% of the population affected by allergic rhinitis and more than 300 million affected by asthma. Pollen from grass species, which are highly allergenic and occur worldwide, elicits allergic responses in 20% of the general population and 40% of atopic individuals.

Asthma and allergy development: contrasting influences of yeasts and other fungal exposures.

Background: Infancy is a developmental stage with heightened susceptibility to environmental influences on the risk of chronic childhood disease. Few birth cohort studies have detailed measures of fungal diversity data in infants' bedrooms, limiting the potential to measure long-term associations of these complex exposures with development of asthma or allergy.

Objective: We evaluated the relation of home fungal levels in infancy to repeated measures of wheeze and development of asthma and rhinitis by age 13, and sensitization by age 12 years.

Wheeze in infancy: protection associated with yeasts in house dust contrasts with increased risk associated with yeasts in indoor air and other fungal taxa.

Background: While fungal exposures are assumed to provoke wheeze through irritant or allergenic mechanisms, little is known about the differential effects of indoor and outdoor fungi on early-life wheeze.

Methods: In a Boston prospective birth cohort of 499 at-risk infants, culturable fungi in bedroom air and dust and outdoor air were measured at the age of 2-3 months. Wheeze was determined using bimonthly telephone questionnaires.