Applicability of the Environmental Relative Moldiness Index for Quantification of Residential Mold Contamination in an Air Pollution Health Effects Study

Table 1

Summary statistics of Environmental Relative Moldiness Index (ERMI) values and Groups 1 and 2 mold concentrations for dust samples collected from homes of NEXUS participants with Spearman correlation coefficient () for paired comparisons ).

Sample type		ERMI		Group 1 mold concentrations; (/mg)		Group 2 mold concentrations; (/mg)
		Mean ± std. dev.		Mean ± std. dev.		Mean ± std. dev.
Settled floor dust	112	14.5 ± 7.9		35.1 ± 9.9		20.6 ± 3.7
Initial settled floor dust	52	12.8 ± 8.8	0.71^*	32.8 ± 11.0	0.63^*	20.0 ± 3.8	0.36^*
Repeat settled floor dust		15.2 ± 9.0		35.9 ± 11.5		20.7 ± 3.8
Living room settled floor dust	66	13.1 ± 7.6	0.69^*	32.8 ± 9.8	0.68^*	19.7 ± 4.2	0.63^*
Bedroom settled floor dust		16.1 ± 9.1		36.1 ± 13.0		20.1 ± 5.5
Settled floor dust	28	15.3 ± 9.5	0.58^*	35.8 ± 12.0	0.70^*	20.6 ± 4.1	0.42
Household vacuum bag dust		7.5 ± 7.5		22.2 ± 10.0		14.7 ± 4.1