Asthma Rates Continue to Increase in the United States

In 2004, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) found that there was sufficient evidence to link indoor exposure to mold with upper respiratory tract symptoms, cough and wheeze in otherwise healthy people. This also included asthma symptoms in people with asthma and with hypersensitivity pneumonitis in individuals susceptible to that immune-mediated condition.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also recently announced that an additional 4.3 million people were diagnosed with asthma between 2001 and 2009. These new figures bring the total number of asthma suffers in the United States to approximately 1 in 12 individuals or 25 million people.

“Despite the fact that outdoor air quality has improved, we’ve reduced two common asthma triggers - secondhand smoke and smoking in general -- asthma is increasing,” reported Paul Garbe, chief of the CDC’s Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Branch. Since Americans spend up to 90% of their time indoors, good indoor air quality is also critical for preventing asthmatic attacks in many with the condition.

Asthma is a disease that affects the lungs. It causes repeated episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and night time or early morning coughing. Asthma can be controlled by taking medicine and avoiding the triggers that can cause an attack. Removing any asthma triggers from the indoor environment, such as mold, can help prevent asthma attacks.

“The only onsite rapid technology referenced for fungal assessment in the IOM report is Mycometer’s patented enzyme activity. IAQ professionals have been utilizing the Mycometer®-test to get rapid results regarding possible fungal contamination in indoor environments for over 10 years,” reported Lisa Rogers, President of Mycometer, Inc. (USA), the company behind the Mycometer®-test. “The Mycometer®-Air and the Mycometer®-Surface testing methodologies allow onsite evaluations to quantify the level of fungal contamination. Identifying and removing asthma triggers can go a long way in helping to prevent these potentially deadly asthma attacks. An ongoing study has shown that subjects with nocturnal asthma had significantly higher level of enzyme activity in their bedrooms than the control group,” she continued.

To learn more, please visit Mycometer at http://www.mycometer.com, email lrogers@mycometer.com or call (813) 831-6511.

About Mycometer, Inc. (USA)
Mycometer was founded in 1998 as a spin off from a research group at the University of Copenhagen. Today the company has offices in Tampa, Florida and Copenhagen, Denmark. The company develops test kits for the detection and quantification of microorganisms. Their Mycometer®-test and the BactiQuant® method are utilized by the indoor air quality, healthcare, food processing, manufacturing and water industries across the globe.

Contact Information

Lisa Rogers

President

Mycometer, Inc. (USA)

Contact via E-mail