NYC Mold Removal Program Cut Asthma ER Cases By A Quarter, Study Says

MONDAY, May 18, 2026 (HealthDay News) — A New York City mold removal program cut asthma-related ER visits by a quarter among residents of public housing, a new study says.

The city created “Mold Busters” in 2019 in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by residents suffering from asthma due to mold in their apartments, researchers said.

The program led to a 25% decrease in asthma-related emergency department visits, researchers reported Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Thoracic Society (ATS).

“These results suggest that housing interventions on asthma triggers could play a critical role in reducing long-standing asthma disparities,” lead researcher Nina Flores said in a news release. Flores is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work.

Mold is a known asthma trigger, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Mold Busters program improved the city’s response to reports of mold in public housing and trained staff in evidence-based ways to best remove it, researchers said.

For the new study, researchers compared asthma ER visits among public housing residents served by the Mold Busters program with a control group of people living in nearby areas with similar income levels.

People served by Mold Busters averaged nine fewer asthma-related ER visits per 1,000 people compared to residents in similar non-public housing areas, results showed.

Overall, that translated to nearly 2,800 fewer ER visits between 2021 to 2023, compared to the 2016-to-2018 period prior to Mold Busters’ implementation, researchers said.

Flores noted that the buildings with the largest drops in mold complaints also saw the steepest declines in asthma-related ER visits – a sign that Mold Busters could indeed improve residents’ health.

The program’s impact likely was even better than captured here, Flores said, since researchers didn’t track less-severe asthma or allergy problems that might cause someone to miss work or school without needing to go to the ER.

“The health benefits reported here likely underestimate the full scope of health-related benefits from the intervention,” she said.

The ATS’ meeting took place in Orlando, Florida.

Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on mold and health.

SOURCE: American Thoracic Society, news release, May 17, 2026