A poorly insulated home with mould could cause your child to develop asthma, a consultant in respiratory medicine has warned. 

The Government has made available a range of grants to improve the energy efficiency of their homes and cut the State’s carbon emissions. 

While tackling climate change may be the primary objective, Professor Marcus Butler, of St Vincent's Hospital said a recent Trinity study found there are health benefits to a well insulated home. 

“It found that 46% of their participants who were in the second half of their life, say over the age of 50, had noticed that there was damp problems in their home - moisture build up and moisture ingress into their homes,” he explained on Lunchtime Live. 

“We know that that’s a major contributor to the incidence and the worsening of asthma.” 

Professor Butler added that even if a person might not be ill to begin with, moving into a mouldy home can change that. 

“Even if you’ve not got allergies, your asthma can worsen from the mould, from the spores that are released from mould indoors,” he said. 

“The main causes of it are a build up of condensation, inadequate ventilation and inadequate warmth. 

“One of the key calls of the Asthma Society in our pre-budget submission for next year’s budget is to ask for increased funding for the Warmer Homes Initiative.

“Which we think would bring up the standard of indoor air quality.” 

A mouldy home. Picture by: Alamy.com.

Professor Butler continued that there is “quite convincing evidence” that mould can actually cause asthma.  

“There was a very interesting study done in Finland where paediatricians made a diagnosis with new asthma in kids aged one to seven, who didn’t have a history of asthma,” he said. 

“They sent out engineers to the houses of those kids and they found when they compared it to a similar population of one to seven year olds who didn’t have asthma, there was way more mould in the asthma patients' houses. 

“Especially in the bedrooms.”

According to Allergy Ireland, some 460,000 people in Ireland have astma.

Main image: A woman looks at mould on the kitchen wall. Picture by: Andriy Popov / Alamy Stock Photo.