EAGER: A Molecular Tool to Measure Mold Exposure and Remediation Effectiveness in Water-damaged Buildings

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In 2017, damage and flooding from Hurricanes Harvey, Maria, and Irma cost $265 billion. More broadly, almost one half of U.S. homes will incur water damage from floods, humidity, and leaky plumbing. Wet sheetrock, wood, and concrete promote the growth of mold in homes, which causes asthma, allergies, and other respiratory disease in infants, children, and adults. Even when flooded homes are dried and cleaned, hidden spaces in walls, baseboards, and floors often retain water and mold. Due to uncertainties in cleaning effectiveness, the property value of a flooded home decreases by more than 50% in the year after a flood. The purpose of this research is to build a practical and affordable tool to measure if building remediation has removed mold that grew due to a flooding event. The tool uses comparative DNA sequence analyses of house dust to classify a home as dry or moldy. This project will produce a tool or test kit that homeowners, industry, and government relief agencies could use to determine whether a home needs remediation, or if a flooded home has been restored to a healthy state. Use of the tool resulting from this project by private remediation companies and public disaster and relief agencies has great potential to protect human health, maintain property values after floods, and improve our Nation's response to flooding events. When water penetrates into homes during flooding or outdoor precipitation events, the increase in building material water activity enables the growth of fungi on indoor surfaces. Visible fungal growth and moisture inside buildings is consistently associated with respiratory and allergic health effects in infants, children, and adults. Even when remediated, hidden spaces in homes often retain moisture and fungal growth, producing chronic health risks among residents and loss in property values. These impacts are most severe for the economically vulnerable fraction of our population. Currently there is no available, accurate approach or test to determine if home exposure to fungi from water damaged material occurs, or if a water damaged home can be considered mold-free after remediation. Uncertainty caused by the lack of uniform metrics leaves home owners and relief agencies reliant upon subjective and possibly unneeded recommendations for cleaning, restoration, and remediation; and potential property devaluations and loss of personal wealth. The goal of this proposed research is to build a practical, affordable, and quantitative tool for two purposes. First to assess whether exposure to fungi from water damage has occurred in a home. Second, to determine if building remediation has removed exposure to fungi that originated during a water intrusion event. The tool is based on comparative DNA sequence analysis to identify changes in home fungal communities due to building dampness. To create this potentially transformative tool, the research project will focus on developing the science of home sampling using computational biology approaches that can identify subtle differences in fungal ecology. Successful completion of this research can transform our Nation's response and financial exposure to flooding. In 2017, structural damage and flooding from Hurricanes Harvey, Maria, and Irma cost $265 billion. By providing quantitative measures from which to assess both the need for remediation and its success, this research can protect human health, maintain property values after floods, and improve our Nation's response to flooding events.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.