Doctors' wheezy answer: Cut mold

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Doctors' wheezy answer: Cut mold

New York Daily News - New York,NY*

By JORDAN LITE

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, February 14th 2008

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2008/02/14/2008-02-

14_doctors_wheezy_answer_cut_mold.html

Asthma specialists want the city to crack down on mold and other

housing code violations that are triggers for the disease.

Forty doctors wrote to Mayor Bloomberg, Health Commissioner

Frieden and Housing Commissioner Shaun Donovan asking for stricter

enforcement of mold removal. They also want pest infestations

reclassified from " hazardous " to " immediately hazardous. "

They say housing code violations for mold, which contributes to

asthma, have doubled in the past two years.

" The vast majority of our asthma patients - at least 80% - live in

apartments rife with asthma triggers, " said Dr. Bob Morrow of

Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. Hospitalization rates for

kids in " Asthma Alley " - North Brooklyn, East Harlem and the South

Bronx - are more than 10 times higher than the rest of the city, the

doctors say.

Health Department officials said they've met with several asthma

groups.