• Posted February 9, 2026

Water-Damaged Homes, Heavy Air Pollution Increase Asthma Risk In Kids

Children are more likely to develop asthma if they are raised in damp homes or neighborhoods with heavy air pollution, a new study says.

On the other hand, having a dog in the home reduces a child’s risk of asthma, researchers found.

“Our research shows that to truly understand and prevent childhood asthma, we need to look at a child’s full environment — both the air they breathe outside and the conditions inside their home,” said lead researcher Dr. Akihiro Shiroshita, a doctoral student in epidemiology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

“Considering these factors together gives us a much clearer picture of what puts children at risk and how we can better protect them,” Shiroshita said in a news release.

For the new study, researchers drew on data from more than 6,400 children participating in a National Institutes of Health program tracking how the environment might influence child health. The children were born between 1987 and 2016.

Results showed that:

• Living in a home with water damage or damp conditions increased risk of asthma by about 17%.

• Residing in a neighborhood with heavy particle air pollution levels increased risk by 48%.

• Exposure to both a damp home and air pollution nearly doubled childhood asthma risk, increasing it by 95%.

• Having a family dog decreased asthma risk by 19%.

“Among demographically and geographically diverse cohorts with births over several decades, we demonstrated the independent and combined effects of early life (particle pollution) and water damage/ home dampness with increased risk of childhood asthma,” the researchers concluded in their paper.

“We also demonstrated that dogs in the home are protective for asthma,” the team added.

The study found no significant relationship between asthma risk and a child’s exposure to either pet cats or dust mites.

The new study was published in the February issue of the journal Environmental Epidemiology.

More information

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America has more on asthma in children.

SOURCES: National Institutes of Health, news release, Feb. 4, 2026; Environmental Epidemiology, February 2026