Does living in mould raise blood pressure?

The evidence directly linking mould exposure to raised blood pressure is thin, but the indirect chain is strong.

The retrieved studies do not test blood pressure as an outcome in mould-exposed people. What they do show is a clear biological pathway. People living in moisture-damaged homes have elevated white blood cell counts, higher release of inflammatory cytokines like IL-1β and IL-8, and increased expression of immune receptors TLR-2, TLR-4, and Dectin-1 [4]. That is chronic immune activation, and chronic inflammation is a well-documented driver of hypertension through endothelial dysfunction and vascular stiffening. Separately, a study of chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis—a lung disease often caused by mould—found that 44% of patients had pulmonary hypertension on invasive testing [5]. That is a different form of high blood pressure (in the lungs), but it shows that mould-triggered lung inflammation can directly raise pressure in the vascular system.

The respiratory evidence is stronger. Dampness and mould in the home are consistently linked to higher rates of asthma onset, wheeze, and nocturnal breathlessness in adults [1], and to rhinitis and allergic rhinitis in children [3]. A European survey across 22 centers found that visible indoor mould ranged from about 3% to 29% of homes depending on climate and building quality [2]. The mechanism is plausible: mycotoxins from moulds like Fusarium and Aspergillus cause oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and apoptosis in cell studies [6][7], and the immune activation they trigger [4] would be expected to affect vascular tone over time.

The evidence here does not include a single study that measured systemic blood pressure in a mould-exposed versus unexposed cohort. That gap matters. But the inflammatory mechanism is documented, and the pulmonary hypertension finding [5] shows that mould can raise pressure in at least one vascular bed. For a parent asking whether mould in the home could be raising their child's blood pressure, the honest answer is: the direct study has not been done, but the biological pathway is plausible and the respiratory harms are well-established.

My call: the evidence does not directly answer whether mould raises systemic blood pressure, but the inflammatory mechanism is documented and the respiratory harms are clear. Confidence: low for the direct blood pressure link, high for the respiratory harms.