diff --git a/QA/runtests.mpi.unix b/QA/runtests.mpi.unix
index 905e682a0c..812f9f9e03 100755
--- a/QA/runtests.mpi.unix
+++ b/QA/runtests.mpi.unix
@@ -32,7 +32,9 @@
 export HYDRA_DEBUG=0
 # find memory leaks using  this glibc feature that
 # initialized memory blocks to non-zero values
-export MALLOC_PERTURB_=$(($RANDOM % 255 + 1))
+if [[ -z "${USE_ASAN}" ]]; then
+    export MALLOC_PERTURB_=$(($RANDOM % 255 + 1))
+fi    
 
 if [[ -z "${NWCHEM_TARGET}" ]]; then
     UNAME_S=$(uname -s)