Living Room Floor Research Articles

Determinants of indoor air quality in Korean households: A nationwide study using the Eighth KNHANES

This study aimed to elucidate the determinants of indoor air quality in Korean households, analyzing data from the Eighth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Measurements focused on Particulate Matter 2.5, carbon dioxide, formaldehyde (HCHO), and total volatile organic compounds. We analyzed the impact of household characteristics and lifestyle factors on indoor air pollutant levels. Key factors such as household composition, the floor of residence, floor area, and living room floor material were significantly associated with pollutant concentrations. Additionally, lifestyle choices including type of cooking fuel, ventilation habits, cleaning frequency, usage of air fresheners, presence of smokers, use of humidifiers, and air purifiers were linked to variations in air quality. These findings highlight the importance of both architectural modifications and lifestyle adjustments in mitigating indoor air pollution. This study contributes to the existing knowledge on indoor air quality determinants, offering pivotal insights for public health strategies aimed at reducing exposure to indoor air pollutants.

Fungi in Early-Life House Dust Samples and the Development of Asthma: A Birth Cohort Study.

Rationale: Fungal exposure has been associated with predisposing and protective effects on the development of childhood asthma. Objectives: To study whether early-life house dust mycobiota composition is associated with the development of asthma. Methods: Mycobiota were determined by amplicon sequencing from 382 dust samples collected from living room floors 2 months after birth in homes of the LUKAS cohort. Asthma status by 10.5 years of age was defined from questionnaires and assigned as ever asthma (n = 68) or current asthma (n = 27). Inhalant atopy was clinically determined at the same age. β-composition was analyzed using PERMANOVA-S, and asthma and atopy analyses were performed using discrete time hazard models and logistic regression, respectively. Results: The house dust mycobiota composition based on Bray-Curtis distance was different in the homes of children who later did or did not develop asthma. The first and the fourth axes scores of principal coordinates analysis based on Bray-Curtis were associated with ever asthma. Of the genera with the strongest correlation with these axes, the relative abundance of Boeremia, Cladosporium, Microdochium, Mycosphaerella, and Pyrenochaetopsis showed protective associations with asthma. None of these associations remained significant after mutual adjustment among the five genera or when mutually adjusted for other microbial cell wall markers and previously identified asthma-protective bacterial indices. Neither fungal α-diversity nor load was associated with asthma in the whole population, but higher fungal richness was a risk factor among children on farms. Higher fungal loads (measured via quantitative polymerase chain reaction) in house dust were associated with the risk of inhalant atopy. Conclusions: The results of our analyses from this well-characterized birth cohort suggest that the early-life house dust mycobiota in Finnish homes, characterized via DNA amplicon sequencing, do not have strong predisposing or protective effects on asthma development.

Pollen allergens sensitization characteristics and risk factors among allergy rhinitis of children in mainland China: A multicenter study

BackgroundNo comprehensive multicenter study of sensitization patterns among patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) to various common pollen allergens was available nationwide, and risks factors of pollen-induced allergic rhinitis (PiAR) in mainland China was unclear. This study aimed to fill this gap. MethodsA multicenter study was performed on 736 AR patients aged below 18 from four regions of mainland China. Patients completed a standardized questionnaire asking for the environmental risk factors and AR severity, and undertook skin prick tests (SPT) with 14 common pollen allergens. FindingsAmong the 736 patients, 341 patients (46.33%) suffered at least one positive pollen allergen sensitization. The positive rate of pollen allergens was significantly higher in the high-age group (Damato et al., 2007; Wang et al., 2018; Luo et al., 2016; Demoly et al., 2011; Sampson and Albergo, 1984; Li et al., 2009; Luo et al., 2021; Ziska and Beggs, 2011; Melén et al., 2020; Jensen-Jarolim, 2017; Rönmark et al., 2017; Ge et al., 2017) [6-17] than the low-age group ( ≤ 5), while no significant difference was found between the sexes. The sensitizations to pollen allergens varied widely among four geographical areas. The positive rate was higher in north China and west China than in east China, and south China had the lowest positive rate. The region of residence, ages, ethnic minorities, history of pollen exposure, the material of living room floor and material of pillow were statistically significant risks of PiAR. InterpretationThis study provides new insights into the pollen allergens sensitization characteristics in AR and the factors affecting PiAR in mainland China.

A Bowl of Cream of Wheat

A Bowl of Cream of Wheat

I Am Not All the Way Here

I Am Not All the Way Here

Notes from a Fever Dream

I spent much of last May watching my husband try to breathe. Sitting up on the living room floor with coffee as he fell asleep on our couch, I had promised to watch his oxygen numbers. The blue num...

Boys: An Inventory

Boys: An Inventory Bowie Rowan (bio) m At eighteen, I learned what falling in love meant with you. It meant bearing witness to each other. It meant not looking away. I loved how you looked at me. Like I was something worth looking at. I would know you at innumerable distances for many years. When you first raised a fist to me, I finally saw you, an image I realized had been slightly out of focus all along. Before that moment, I don't know if I ever saw you fully at all. You were the first boy I let inside of me. Once, you said, "You are the measuring stick for all others. No one else measures up." I thought I was in love with you, but now I wonder if I was only seeing myself through you, like I'd been taught. It hurt more than I'd anticipated when you finally looked away from me. It was as if I no longer existed. Thank you for turning away, for punching the typewriter in our apartment, instead of hitting me. n I don't remember your name and I don't want to. It was the summer of 2009. I was living in the Bronx near the second to last stop off the 1 train. I was twenty-two, a poorly paid intern in New York, making just enough money to pay rent and eat $1 donuts for two meals a day. I was also trying to outrun a broken heart. My roommate was a drunk—I learned that quickly—but he was usually friendly. He was so skinny. He looked like a little boy who never grew up. I knew him from a summer I spent working as a camp counselor in Pittsburgh. He had a cheap open room that summer, which is why I was able to move there at all. He had a broken heart too. His girlfriend had cheated on him like M had cheated on me, so I took pity on him. You were his [End Page 36] friend from back home. You both grew up in Pittsburgh like me, so I liked you a little for that. You stayed with us for a long weekend, getting drunk while I avoided the apartment. The first day you stayed with us, I rode the train for over an hour so I could haunt Coney Island alone, stalking it with my anonymous unseen sadness. Michael Jackson died that summer, so his music followed everywhere I went. The shrill of "Thriller" traveled through me as I walked the boardwalk in my bathing suit and a short skirt. The sun warmed my skin after a hard rain. There was a rainbow. For the first time that summer, it felt good to be inside myself. You and my roommate had followed me to Coney Island without my knowing. My roommate texted me once you were both there. I was lonely that summer, so it was fine, even though I didn't particularly have much to say to either of you. All day, I did that thing I didn't yet know I had been taught to do. The more uncomfortable I was, the more I smiled and laughed at every stupid, inconsequential thing you said. You both watched as I ran into the cold water in my bathing suit. I wished you would have looked away. Back at the apartment, you continued to drink. I was sitting on the living room floor when you pulled my bra strap across my back so it snapped on my skin and hurt. You were on your way to the bathroom when you did it. I don't remember what I said to you, but I was upset enough to immediately leave the room and go to bed. I didn't think to lock the door. When the door opened, I asked awkwardly what you were doing. I smiled, laughed, left myself completely before it got any worse. You got on top of me, pulled down my underwear and slipped your fingers inside me before I had a chance to say anything. The only time I went roller skating outside, the wheels...

House dust endotoxin, asthma and allergic sensitization through childhood into adolescence.

BackgroundHouse dust endotoxin may have beneficial effects on allergic sensitization and asthma in children. Evidence is scarce for adolescents and most studies so far have been cross‐sectional and limited to a single exposure measurement.ObjectiveWe assessed associations of house dust endotoxin with asthma and allergic sensitization from birth to age 17 years longitudinally taking into account exposure early in life and at primary school age.MethodsWe used data of 854 participants of the prospective Dutch PIAMA birth cohort study with house dust endotoxin measurements at 3 months and/or 5‐6 years and data on asthma and/or allergic sensitization from at least one of 11 follow‐ups until age 17. We assessed overall and age‐specific associations of the prevalence of asthma and sensitization with mattress and living room floor dust concentrations (per gram of dust) and loads (per m2 of sampling surface).ResultsHigher living room floor dust endotoxin concentrations at 3 months were associated with lower odds of asthma until age 4 [odds ratio (95% confidence interval) ranging from 0.70 (0.51‐0.97) at age 1 to 0.76 (0.57‐1.00) at age 3 per interquartile range increase], but not thereafter in children of allergic mothers. Higher living room floor dust endotoxin at 5‐6 years was associated with higher odds of sensitization at 8‐16 years [eg odds ratio (95% confidence interval) 1.70 (1.17‐2.47) per interquartile range increase in endotoxin load].Conclusions and clinical relevanceHouse dust endotoxin may have beneficial effects on asthma in preschool children of allergic mothers, which do not persist into adolescence. Beneficial associations with allergic sensitization could not be confirmed.

Finding More than I Asked For <em>Discussing the Impact of COVID-19 on the Film Heritage Foundation, Mumbai, and Korean Film Archive, Seoul</em>

Finding More than I Asked ForDiscussing the Impact of COVID-19 on the Film Heritage Foundation, Mumbai, and Korean Film Archive, Seoul Victoria Duckett (bio) It is ironic that on the day I have put aside to write a reflection on film archives in Asia for this second iteration of "Conversations"—one with Shivendra Singh, founder and director of the Film Heritage Foundation in Mumbai, and another with Sungji Oh, head of the Korean Film Archive's Cinematheque team—I had my first COVID-19 test. I woke to find my teenage son sprawled across a beanbag on the living room floor, confiding in a rasping voice that he had a sore throat and was unable to sleep. With COVID-19 cases slowly on the rise in Victoria, and with our first hard shutdown of the border with New South Wales imposed three days ago, on January 1, 2020, I felt duty-bound to bundle my son into a car, drive him through a testing site, and impose quarantine on the household until our results were in. Yes, the cotton swab made me gag and brought tears to my eyes. But there were some positives. As the doctor attending our car cheerfully told us, we had been lucky to be tested today; yesterday, the queues were five hours long. I was possibly being overly cautious in taking us to be tested. After all, no one I know in Australia has had COVID-19, traveled to the hot spots listed in our daily news cycles, or been abroad, and only one family member has presented with a sore throat. But I also actively provide support to aging parents. Moreover, my partner's mother is a healthy ninety-five-yearold who similarly depends on us for groceries, technological support (i.e., Sunday Mass on Zoom), and company. I am therefore acutely concerned about community transmission. Moreover, the father of my boys recently flew into Australia from abroad and is currently in quarantine. He managed to obtain a visa only because one child is a minor. Significantly—particularly in view of what Shivendra Singh speaks to me about in terms of poverty and class in India—he was also able to pay for hotel quarantine and a very expensive business class airplane ticket to Melbourne (which was the only ticket available for purchase). If he records two COVID-19 negative results, he can see his children for the first time in more than a year. Both have grown. The oldest one has just completed his final year of school, doing this largely online after schools shut down in Victoria in March. These particular circumstances—to which I would add an extraordinarily busy academic year of online teaching while negotiating homeschooling and 111 days of lockdown—pale into insignificance when I look at what colleagues, family, and friends are facing abroad. Or better, my understanding of the enormity of what is occurring because of COVID-19 is crystallized when I reflect on the conversation I had with Shivendra for this article in October. My previous "Conversations" were undertaken in May 2020. At this early point in the coronavirus pandemic, I joined Meg Labrum (of the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra) to reflect on archival practice following a summer of bushfires and Matteo Pavesi (as director of the Cineteca Italiana in Milan) to detail the initiatives his archive was taking in reaching new, intergenerational audiences through curating online initiatives from home. At that point in time, I did not ask about mortality rates, migrant populations, or the "actual" lived experience of lockdown. What I sought, instead, was information about archival capacity: I asked Labrum and Pavesi about organizing teams to work from home, the focus given to curatorial projects, and the public outreach they were enjoying—the same, and yet different. In [End Page 231] hindsight, it is as though COVID-19 was being imagined as a pandemic impacting an archive's work practices and online visibility (it moves largely online, or at least newly develops materials in this space). INTRODUCING INDIA Shivendra began our discussion by reminding me of the desperate reality India is facing. Given just four hours' notice on...

Airborne Rodent Allergen Levels in Dutch Households: A Pilot Study.

Little research has been conducted in Europe regarding indoor exposure to airborne rodent allergens. The aims of this study were to gain insight into the prevalence of rodent allergens in airborne dust in Dutch households, to assess whether there is a relationship between rodent sightings and detectable allergens, and to identify risk factors associated with the presence of rodent allergens. Airborne dust was collected from the living rooms of 80 households distributed around central Netherlands by passive sampling using electrostatic dust collectors (EDCs). Samples were analysed for mouse (Mus m 1) and rat (Rat n 1) allergens. Participants completed a questionnaire on household and building characteristics, household pets, cleaning habits and ventilation. Mouse allergen was more prevalent than rat allergen and mouse sightings within the past year more than doubled the odds of detectable mouse allergen. Proximity to green areas, ventilation through an open window and insulation under the living room floor were determinants for detectable mouse allergen. Conversely, proximity to surface water was protective. No significant association was found between asthma and detectable mouse allergen. The passive EDC sampling method was used successfully to detect mouse and rat allergens in homes. The presence of mouse allergen was associated with previous mouse sightings. Risk factors and protective factors associated with the presence and levels of mouse allergen were identified.

Without Being Taught

Without Being Taught Elizabeth Miki Brina (bio) I am eleven years old. I am lying on my stomach on the living room floor, too close to the television, watching an episode of Beverly Hills: 90210. My father summons me to the dining room table and I can hardly hear what he says as Dylan declares his love to Brenda, or Brandon declares his love to Kelly, while leaning against a motorcycle or sitting in the backseat of a Cadillac convertible, on a cliff's edge, the city of Los Angeles twinkling below them. Somehow the stories of these characters seem so complex, so compelling, even with everyone leading generally pleasant lives and reciprocating love for each other. My father waits until the commercial, as soon as Noxzema promises to dissolve oil without over-drying. "Elizabeth?" he asks again. "This better not take long." I join my parents at the head of the table, with my mother and father on either side of me, with my back turned toward the television, but I can still hear what Brenda or Kelly will say next if I stretch my ears to listen. My mother sits with her knees bent close to her chest, her nightgown pulled around her legs, her toes clutching the cushion of the chair. Her eyes are wet. My father, as usual, reveals nothing. His shoulders are relaxed, his hands clasped. He gets directly to the point. [End Page 147] "Your mother met a man who is very nice to her …" I wake up, just a little, at that moment. And a wakefulness carries through, just a little, beyond that moment. From now on, I start to pay more attention. I start to watch my own life more carefully. But I won't understand most of it, not for a long time. My mother won't let him finish. "No, stop … Just forget it … I don't want you to say anything else." My father doesn't say anything else. My mother wipes her eyes. I ask, "Can I go watch TV now?" ________ His name was Sonny. And we never spoke of him again, not out in the open like that, with all three of us sitting together at the dining room table. I never saw him at the house again after that conversation. I'd had no idea they were even talking about Sonny until many years later. I remember his long hair and thin mustache. I remember he wore a black leather jacket, which I thought was cool. I remember he took me to Chuck E. Cheese and Ground Round for dinner, won giant stuffed animals for me, twisted balloons into silly shapes for me, bought Aerosmith and Guns N' Roses cassette tapes for me, because the music he blasted through his car stereo made me smile at the breeze out the open window and think I was cool. But the most significant detail about him, a detail I hadn't considered as a child, had to be that he spoke Japanese. Sonny and my mother spoke Japanese. They were two of the few people who spoke Japanese in a small suburb of a small city in upstate New York, where people who spoke languages other than English were scattered across miles and surfaced only occasionally. Sonny and my mother found each other at a restaurant, a Japanese restaurant, where he worked as a sushi chef and she worked as a waitress. My father couldn't speak Japanese. He never learned. Not when he was stationed in Okinawa for a year, in between tours of duty in Vietnam and Korea. Not when he met my mother at a night club, just outside the army base in her hometown of Kadena. Not when he asked [End Page 148] her to marry him, and certainly not when he brought her to the United States to live with him. My father never learned, so I didn't either. Even now, I can't truly appreciate the immediate intimacy she must have felt with Sonny—after spending the majority of her years as wife and mother fumbling for words—to finally be able to converse with someone with ease and grace...

Surrounding Residential Greenness does not Confound Associations between Pet Ownership and Endotoxins in Germany

Background/Aim: Pet ownership is consistently associated with higher indoor endotoxin concentrations. We examined whether surrounding residential greenness may confound or modify this association in homes in Munich, Germany, because pet ownership might be related to neighbourhood greenness. Methods: Pet ownership data were collected during participant recruitment in the LISA cohort. Endotoxin concentrations were measured in settled house dust sampled from mothers’ mattresses and living room floors (N=1199). Residential greenness was defined as the mean Normalized Difference Vegetation Index in a 500m buffer around the home. Linear regression models assessed cross-sectional associations between log-transformed endotoxin concentrations and pet ownership, adjusted for known predictors of endotoxin concentrations. Confounding was assessed by additionally adjusting the models for residential greenness. Effect modification was assessed by including interaction terms between pet ownership and residential greenness, and stratifying the models by residential greenness tertiles. Results: In adjusted models, dog ownership (5.3%) was associated with higher endotoxin concentrations in mattresses (means ratio: 1.67 [95% confidence intervals: 1.17, 2.39]) and on floors (2.32 [1.60, 3.35]). Cat ownership (9.2%) was only associated with mattress concentrations (1.49 [1.14, 1.97]). No associations were found with the other pets considered (bunny, bird). Associations were robust to further adjustment for greenness. Associations were slightly stronger in the lower greenness tertile for endotoxin concentrations in mattresses (low: 2.10 [1.01, 4.35], medium: 1.55 [0.86, 2.77] and high: 1.43 [0.79, 2.59] for dogs, and low: 1.93 [1.13, 3.29], medium: 1.40 [0.92, 2.14] and high 1.48 [0.89, 2.44] for cats) but not on floors. Interaction terms were not significant. Conclusions: Residential greenness did not confound the associations between pet ownership and indoor endotoxin concentrations, and there was only limited evidence of effect modification. Studies should continue investigating how pets influence indoor endotoxin concentrations, either by their presence and/or by acting as transmission vectors of the outdoor environment.

Is the association between pet ownership and indoor endotoxin levels confounded or modified by outdoor residential greenspace?

BackgroundPet ownership is consistently associated with higher indoor endotoxin concentrations, but may also be related to the amount of greenspace around the home. This study examined whether the association between pet ownership and higher indoor endotoxin concentrations is confounded or modified by residential greenspace. MethodsInformation on pet ownership was collected at the time of recruitment of the German LISA birth cohort. Endotoxin levels were measured in settled house dust sampled from mothers' mattresses (N=1197) and living room floors (N=390). Greenspace around the home was assessed as the mean Normalized Difference Vegetation Index in 100m, 500m and 1000m buffers around the home, and as the distance to the nearest urban and natural green space. Linear regression models assessed cross-sectional associations between pet ownership and log-transformed endotoxin levels, adjusted for known predictors of endotoxin levels. Confounding by greenspace was assessed by additionally adjusting the models for each greenspace variable. Effect modification was assessed by including interaction terms between pet ownership and each greenspace variable, and by model stratification. ResultsDog and cat ownership were associated with higher endotoxin levels in mothers' mattresses, whereas only dog ownership was associated with endotoxin levels in the floor samples. All associations were highly robust to further adjustment for greenspace, and there was little evidence to suggest any effect modification (interaction terms had p-values >0.05). ConclusionsResidential greenspace did not confound or modify the association between pet ownership and indoor endotoxin levels. Studies should continue investigating whether pets influence the indoor environment only by their presence, or also by acting as transmission vectors of the outdoors.

PREVALENSI DAN FAKTOR RISIKO TUNGAU DEBU RUMAH DI PAMULANG (TANGERANG) DAN PASAR REBO (JAKARTA)

House dust mites (HDM), anaeroallergen which may be found in all of part of the urban house including mattress. The objectives of this study were to find out the prevalence and risk factors of house dust mites in urban communities i.e.,Pamulang (Southern Tangerang) and Pasar Rebo (Nothern Jakarta). The study design was a cross-sectional study. The samples of house dusts were collected from house of respondents, living-room floors, bed-room floors, kitchen-room floors, terrace-room floors, ventilation, kapuk mattress, sofa, spring bed, foam mattress, and carpet. Mites were examined by a direct method. The species of HDM found were Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, D.farinae, and Glyciphagus destructor. The prevalence rate ofHDM was 66,9% (621/927). Statistically, no significant difference(p>0,05) was found between the prevalence of HDM in Pamulang(59,8% ,307/513) and Pasar Rebo (75,8%, 314/414). In Pamulang, 94.2% (49/52)of the respondent’s houses were HDM positive (+) and 63.6% (28/44) in Pasar Rebo. Mattresses and bed-room floors were risk factors for HDM(OR=1.99 95% CI 1.06-3.72 and OR=1.8 95% CI 1.10-2.90). This study showed that the houses in two urban communities hadrich HDM.

Who We intend to Be

Who We intend to Be Calvin Haul (bio) The House across from the Deaf School Michael Gills Texas A&M University Press www.tamupress.com/product/The-House-Across-from-the-Deaf-School,8634.aspx 144 Pages; Print, $14.95 The House Across from the Deaf School presents us with a sui generis voice of hope, struggle, reminiscence, and despair. In his third collection of short stories, author Michael Gills engages readers with a psalm in one hand and bloody hunting knife in the other. The author's lexicon is raw-boned and muscular, insightful and severe. There is soulfulness at work here. This fiction blends the colloquial intuition of heartbreak with the physical fluency of a pugilist intent upon protecting his broken heart. Set in the backwoods of Lonoke County, Arkansas, "where every house had a vegetable garden growing up to its back door, and dead animals littered the roadside," protagonist and sometimes anti-hero Joey Harvell reflects about growing up with O.W., an abusive although not completely bad step-father. After all, O.W. taught Harvell to still-hunt and once bailed him out of jail even though Harvell had "broke" one of his teeth. "I have not forgotten how it was those forty Augusts ago," recalls Harvell, "turning the face I wore as a boy to the heat of day." Memory plays a major role in establishing the framework and tenor of these stories. In "Puercos Gordos," Emile Burgin, a famous drunk amputee, recalls how Harvell once fumbled the football on the one-yard line during a wet playoff game. In the story, Harvell himself is reminiscing about this exchange with the father of his then girlfriend Kim. There are love letters, the old man's death, and finally the Star Herald's announcement of Kim's forthcoming marriage to another Lonoke local. Years later, Harvell nurses his recollections "with another whiskey" before passing out on the living room floor in front of his daughter, Lara. The story ends with the hope and hopelessness of prayer: One of us or the other will say the prayer, offer thanks for all the blessings in our lives, ask mercy for the destitute, the ill, the hungry and the drunk, the recently departed, all that. We'll be holding hands, saying Amen. Gills draws us into these interlinked stories with trenchant accounts of formidable characters, each extraordinarily etched with an individuality of soul. Yes, many stories are "mostly lost to history" as Harvell admits of his grandfather's rehabilitation in "Eternally Yours." But much remains to be told. Although Gills emphasizes the role memory plays in our expressions of personal narrative, he's equally wary of the verities we draw from what we remember, how we remember. In "Last Words on Lonoke," Harvell opines: Now that the house where this all happened is lost to foreclosure, there remains nothing concrete to prove what's happened in our lives save pure memory, which is a lousy-ass alternative to mortar and brick, stone and joist, flesh and bone. Sadly, sometimes memory is inadequate. Which may be why, Gills suggests, that relationships should be paramount in our lives: friends and loved ones serve to remind us of who we are—or, perhaps more importantly, who we intend to be. (This notion is explicit in the book's "Afterward," which includes an e-mail correspondence between the author and his late friend and publisher, Paul Ruffin.) Throughout these stories, Harvell reveals himself a champion, martyr, accuser, and accomplice. In "Welcome to the Authentic Trail of Tears," it's hog killing day. Harvell's job is to scratch General George Custer's back with a stick because that's what the shoat likes. Two pages later, the pig is shot between the eyes and "lay there in a spasm, bleeding on the dead pine needles." The literary road Gills's paves is bespeckled with the pig shit of dead pigs. There are those episodes that render these pages cooler than freezer-burned ice. There are moments of unequaled love and lucidity, too. The author's baseline language, his tone and pitch, serve as literary oxygen for narrative arcs that...

A Matter of Distance, A Matter of Time

A Matter of Distance, A Matter of Time Ruth Joffre (bio) Ruth JoffreThink of space as a series of smaller and smaller enclosures:the house we lived in, its rusted spigot and piles of firewoodnestled deep in the forest where only the air could touch it—and still the air felt like too much. We were vulnerable there under the shadow of the white ash, the second storywith its frosted windows and clear view of the riverseeming like a dream left over from some other lifewe lived apart. From our bed we could see down tothe roof of the sunporch, the family of red-breasted robins who built a nest while we smoked.At night, we lit candles: for the scent, forthe shimmer of the fire that drew us backto watch a frantic moth catch on the wickand burn down. We were so exhausted, itseemed like a relief to go inside, to end it once and for all. One after the other,the doors closed, like stars, bangingshut when no one’s looking. I guessI expected an explosion, a spectacle.But there was only me, sitting there,there on the living room floor whileyou packed your things so quietly, I thought I was still in love.How far away can you be [End Page 155] if I still hear you leaving?Let’s not pretend it’s easylet’s not pretend I haven’tsometimes wished on thatblack patch in the road, soyou always cross it safely. [End Page 156] Ruth Joffre Ruth Joffre ’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Kenyon Review, Mid-American Review, the Masters Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Nashville Review, and SmokeLong Quarterly, among others. Kelly Link selected her story “Night Beast” as the winner of the Masters Review ’s 2016 Fall Fiction Contest. She lives in Seattle, where she teaches at the Hugo House. Copyright © 2017 University of Nebraska Press

The relationships among Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus exposure, exhaled nitric oxide, and exhaled breath condensate pH levels in atopic asthmatic children

This study examined seasonal changes in indoor Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus 1 (Der p 1)/Blattella germanica 1 (Bla g 1) antigen concentrations in the homes of atopic asthmatic and atopic nonasthmatic children. Possible associations between environmental allergen exposure and levels of exhaled breath indices were also evaluated.A total of 38 atopic children were recruited for this cross-sectional study: 22 were asthmatic and 16 were nonasthmatic. Home visits were conducted for indoor air and dust sampling each season. Exhaled nitric oxide (eNO)/spirometric measurements were taken and exhaled breath condensate (EBC) was collected after sampling of the domestic environment.The highest Der p 1 concentrations were on the top of mattresses in the homes of recruited children. The floors of kitchens and living rooms had the highest Bla g 1 concentrations in the homes of atopic asthmatic children. A positive correlation was found between Der p 1 exposure of mattress, bedroom floor, and living room floor and eNO levels in the atopic asthmatic children. The Der p 1 concentrations on the surfaces of mattress and bedroom floor were positively related to high eNO levels in the atopic asthmatic children after adjusting for season. No association was found between Der p 1 exposure and EBC pH values in the recruited children.A positive correlation was found between Der p 1 exposure and high eNO levels in atopic asthmatic children, especially in Der p 1 exposure of mattress and bedroom floor.

Exposure to phthalates in house dust and associated allergies in children aged 6–12 years

Phthalates are widely used as plasticizers in household products. Several studies have reported an association between phthalate exposure and an increased risk of allergies. The present study estimated phthalate exposure in children aged 6–12years and assessed potential correlations with allergies. House dust samples were collected from floors and multi-surface objects >35cm above the floor. Urine samples were collected from the first morning void of the day. Daily phthalate intake (DIdust and DI) was estimated using both house dust and urinary metabolite concentrations. Exposure to di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) in floor dust was associated with parental-reported rhino-conjunctivitis. After stratification by gender, this trend was found to only occur in boys. Furthermore, urinary mono-isobutyl phthalate was inversely associated with parental-reported wheeze in boys. DIdust of benzyl butyl phthalate (BBzP) and DEHP were significantly correlated with DI_BBzP and DI_DEHP, respectively. These correlations were stronger with floor than with multi-surface dust. Our results suggest that, among Japanese children, house dust from low surfaces, such as living room floors, might play a meaningful role in the indoor environmental exposure pathway for BBzP and DEHP.

Urban Dust Microbiome: Impact on Later Atopy and Wheezing.

Background:Investigations in urban areas have just begun to explore how the indoor dust microbiome may affect the pathogenesis of asthma and allery.Objective:We aimed to investigate the early fungal and bacterial microbiome in house dust with allergic sensitization and wheezing later in childhood.Methods:Individual dust samples from 189 homes of the LISAplus birth cohort study were collected shortly after birth from living room floors and profiled for fungal and bacterial microbiome. Fungal and bacterial diversity was assessed with terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (tRFLP) and defined by Simpson’s Diversity Index. Information on wheezing outcomes and covariates until the age of 10 years was obtained by parent questionnaires. Information on specific allergic sensitization was available at child’s age 6 and 10 years. Logistic regression and general estimation equation (GEE) models were used to examine the relationship between microbial diversity and health outcomes.Results:Adjusted logistic regression analyses revealed a significantly reduced risk of developing sensitization to aero-allergens at 6 years and ever wheezing until the age of 10 years for exposure to higher fungal diversity [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 0.26 (95% CI: 0.10, 0.70), and 0.42 (95% CI: 0.18, 0.96), respectively]. The associations were attenuated for the longitudinal analyses (GEE) until the age of 10 years. There was no association between higher exposure to bacterial diversity and the tested health outcomes.Conclusion:Higher early exposure to fungal diversity might help to prevent a child from developing sensitization to aero-allergens in early childhood, but the reasons for attenuated effects in later childhood require further prospective studies.Citation:Tischer C, Weikl F, Probst AJ, Standl M, Heinrich J, Pritsch K. 2016. Urban dust microbiome: impact on later atopy and wheezing. Environ Health Perspect 124:1919–1923; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/EHP158

Fungal and Bacterial Communities in Indoor Dust Follow Different Environmental Determinants.

People spend most of their time inside buildings and the indoor microbiome is a major part of our everyday environment. It affects humans’ wellbeing and therefore its composition is important for use in inferring human health impacts. It is still not well understood how environmental conditions affect indoor microbial communities. Existing studies have mostly focussed on the local (e.g., building units) or continental scale and rarely on the regional scale, e.g. a specific metropolitan area. Therefore, we wanted to identify key environmental determinants for the house dust microbiome from an existing collection of spatially (area of Munich, Germany) and temporally (301 days) distributed samples and to determine changes in the community as a function of time. To that end, dust samples that had been collected once from the living room floors of 286 individual households, were profiled for fungal and bacterial community variation and diversity using microbial fingerprinting techniques. The profiles were tested for their association with occupant behaviour, building characteristics, outdoor pollution, vegetation, and urbanization. Our results showed that more environmental and particularly outdoor factors (vegetation, urbanization, airborne particulate matter) affected the community composition of indoor fungi than of bacteria. The passage of time affected fungi and, surprisingly, also strongly affected bacteria. We inferred that fungal communities in indoor dust changed semi-annually, whereas bacterial communities paralleled outdoor plant phenological periods. These differences in temporal dynamics cannot be fully explained and should be further investigated in future studies on indoor microbiomes.