‘Tis the Season — Christmas Trees and Indoor Air Quality

Can a Christmas tree bring on an asthma attack? The answer is yes — a live one can.  Live Christmas trees can carry pathogenic mold spores that proliferate rapidly in the cozy warmth of your living room.  One study showed that indoor mold counts went from 800 to 5,000 spores per cubic meter by the fourteenth day a Christmas tree had been kept indoors.  In terms of indoor air quality, this amounts to an explosion of mold growth — especially when you consider that the average healthy home tests at 600 mold spores per cubic meter. The study was initiated by researchers John...