| Introduction
About 30 questionnaire studies from around the world have shown a consistently strong correlation between occupantreported respiratory disease symptoms and reported moisture and mold problems in houses. The Canadian questionnaire study by Health Canada, looking at 15,000 houses in 30 communities in five geographical regions of Canada, was one of the largest of those studies and showed some of the strongest correlations. Questionnaire studies are prone to biases in reporting, however, and are best followed up by well-designed field studies that compare actual exposure with measured health outcomes. CMHC worked with Dr. Robert Dales of Health Canada and Dr. David Miller, then with Agriculture Canada and now with Carleton University, to design a field study that would measure exposure to a number of indoor air pollutants, the health of early school age children, and the conditions and performance of their houses. Several projects were funded over a number of years, first to develop the necessary protocols, then to measure exposure in a Phase I study, and finally to measure house condition and several health indicators in the Phase II study reported here. A number of papers have been written on those studies and are identified at the end of this Research Highlight. They expand on some correlations discussed here.
This program of projects was carried out in Wallaceburg Ontario, a town northeast of Lake St. Clair between Sarnia and Windsor. This town has moderate weather and was chosen to be representative of the average of the weather regimes for the cross-country survey. The Phase I houses were chosen from those occupied by students attending the earlier grades of elementary school. The Phase II houses were selected from the Phase I set, according to the degree of mold exposure measured in Phase I.
Also see: Lawton, 1998, Moldy houses - building science lessons from the Wallaceburg project ;  a dicussion on this reference |