Cockroach counts and house dust allergen concentrations after professional cockroach control and cleaning.
BACKGROUND
It is known that cockroach allergen exposure is both frequent in inner-city homes and associated with asthma severity in children living in those homes. However, there have been few studies of interventions to reduce exposures in this setting.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effect of short-term professional cockroach control and intensive cleaning on allergen concentrations.


METHODS
Families of children from a school-based asthma treatment program who had skin test results positive to cockroach allergen were enrolled if the home had cockroaches. Forty-nine homes were randomly assigned to receive professional cleaning with bait traps containing insecticide, professional cleaning with bait traps without insecticide, or no cleaning or bait traps. In all homes, dust was collected repeatedly to evaluate cockroach allergen Bla g 2 in the kitchen and bedroom, and cockroaches were trapped and counted repeatedly for more than 11 weeks.


RESULTS
Median cockroach counts were reduced in the homes treated with insecticide bait traps but not in other groups. There were significant reductions in allergen concentration in the kitchen in homes that received professional cleaning and had higher initial cockroach counts (54), regardless of whether bait traps had insecticide or not.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that intensive cleaning can produce significant reductions in cockroach allergen in homes with heavy initial cockroach infestations.
McConnell
Rob
R
Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90033, USA. rmcconne@usc.edu
Jones
Craig
C
Milam
Joel
J
Gonzalez
Patty
P
Berhane
Kiros
K
Clement
Loran
L
Richardson
Jean
J
Hanley-Lopez
Jean
J
Kwong
Kenneth
K
Maalouf
Najib
N
Galvan
Judith
J
Platts-Mills
Tom
T
D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis / Q000517:prevention & control; D000485:Allergens / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis*; D000818:Animals; D001249:Asthma / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D003058:Cockroaches; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006796:Household Work; D006801:Humans; D015141:Los Angeles; D008297:Male; D010572:Pest Control, Biological; D011204:Poverty Areas; D039981:Pyroglyphidae; D014504:Urban Health
D000485:Allergens