Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

4844

Date

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Public Health

Major

Public Health

Concentration

Environmental Health

Committee Chair

Chunrong Jia

Committee Member

Pratik Banerjee

Committee Member

Tyler Zerwekh

Abstract

Indoor mold may cause asthma and other respiratory symptoms; however, no study has been conducted in homes in Memphis. This study aims to monitor indoor mold exposure and explore its relationship to respiratory symptoms/illnesses. Environmental monitoring was conducted in 15 homes (9 with visible mold and 6 without) in Shelby County. Indoor environmental samples included ground and air vent dust, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), real-time particulate matter (PM), CO2, relative humidity (RH), and temperature. In laboratory, mold in dust samples were analyzed using an Endpoint PCR and VOCs on a thermal desorption-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (TD-GC/MS) system. No association was found between detected and reported mold. Neither we found statistically significant association between environmental exposure and reported respiratory symptoms. These findings need to be confirmed by future studies with larger sample sizes and geographic coverage.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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