Air- and Dustborne Mycoflora in Houses Free of Water Damage and Fungal Growth

Abstract

Typically, studies on indoor fungal growth in buildings focus on structures with known or suspected water damage, moisture, and/or indoor fungal growth problems. Reference information on types of culturable fungi and total fungal levels are generally not available for buildings without these problems. This study assessed 50 detached single-family homes in metropolitan Atlanta, Ga., to establish a baseline of "normal and typical" types and concentrations of airborne and dustborne fungi in urban homes which were predetermined not to have noteworthy moisture problems or indoor fungal growth. Each home was visually examined, and samples of indoor and outdoor air and of indoor settled dust were taken in winter and summer. The results showed that rankings by prevalence and abundance of the types of airborne and dustborne fungi did not differ from winter to summer, nor did these rankings differ when air samples taken indoors were compared with those taken outdoors. Water indicator fungi were essentially absent from both air and dust samples. The air and dust data sets were also examined specifically for the proportions of colonies from ecological groupings such as leaf surface fungi and soil fungi. In the analysis of dust for culturable fungal colonies, leaf surface fungi constituted a considerable portion (>20%) of the total colonies in at least 85% of the samples. Thus, replicate dust samples with less than 20% of colonies from leaf surface fungi are unlikely to be from buildings free of moisture or mold growth problems.

Culturability and concentration of indoor and outdoor airborne fungi in six single-family homes

“…In addition, a study conducted in Greater New Haven, Connecticut revealed higher mean levels of culturable fungi (Ren et al, 1999) than found in the present study. However, the data collected in the Atlanta area and reported by Horner et al (2004) are close to our data with respect to the indoor median concentration of culturable fungi. This might be because (a) the climate conditions and vegetation in Atlanta are similar to those we observed in Cincinnati and (b) Horner et al pre-screened the sampling sites before measurement to focus on the houses free from water damage for minimizing the indoor sources of airborne fungi (similarly to our approach).…”

Mold Exposure and Health Effects Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

“…Many of the molds identified are allergenic, including Alternaria, Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Curvularia, and Penicillium (26). In general, the types of molds isolated after the storm were different from those previously reported for nonwaterdamaged buildings in the Southeastern United States (27).…”

Identification and Characterization of Size-Segregated Bioaerosols at Different Sites in Delhi

“…Animal housings, water damped buildings, food processing plants, dumping sites etc. are various indoor and outdoor environments wherein higher concentration of bioaerosol have been associated with several health impacts indicating poor air quality (Eduard et al, 1993;Fischer et al, 2003;Horner et al, 2004;Shantha et al, 2009;Ghosh et al, 2015). Since airborne microorganisms mostly fall into respirable size range (with diameter < 10 µm), they usually have the capability to penetrate deep down into human lungs causing several health hazards (Reponen et al, 2001;Gorny and Dutkiewicz, 2002).…”