Personal exposures and microenvironmental concentrations of particles and bioaerosols

Toivola, Mika; Alm, Sari; Reponen, Tiina; Kolari, Sirpa; Nevalainen, Aino

doi:10.1039/b108682k

Cited by 114 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 49 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

100

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…It should be noted that measurements reported in the above-cited papers were conducted in environments with extremely high levels of the fungal spore concentration: up to 10 10 spores m -3 and 10 10 CFU m -3 . Toivola et al (2002) measured the fungal spore culturability in a personal exposure study performed in winter in Finland. The investigators found very low culturability levels (below 1% on the average) that may be attributed to low longterm air temperatures outdoors during their measurements.…”

Section: Culturabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

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

Lee

Grinshpun

Martuzevičius

et al. 2006

Atmospheric Environment

Self Cite

136

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this study, the culturability of indoor and outdoor airborne fungi was determined through longterm sampling (24-h) using a Button Personal Inhalable Aerosol Sampler. The air samples were collected during three seasons in six Cincinnati area homes that were free from moisture damage or visible mold. Cultivation and total microscopic enumeration methods were employed for the sample analysis. The geometric means of indoor and outdoor culturable fungal concentrations were 88 and 102 colony-forming units (CFU) m -3 , respectively, with a geometric mean of the I/O ratio equal to 0.66. Overall, 26 genera of culturable fungi were recovered from the indoor and outdoor samples. For total fungal spores, the indoor and outdoor geometric means were 211 and 605 spores m -3 , respectively, with a geometric mean of I/O ratio equal to 0.32. The identification revealed 37 fungal genera from indoor and outdoor samples based on the total spore analysis. Indoor and outdoor concentrations of culturable and total fungal spores showed significant correlations (r = 0.655, p<0.0001 and r = 0.633, p<0.0001, respectively). The indoor and outdoor median viabilities of fungi were 55% and 25%, respectively, which indicates that indoor environment provides more favorable survival conditions for the aerosolized fungi. Among the seasons, the highest indoor and outdoor culturability of fungi was observed in the fall. Cladosporium had a highest median value of culturability (38% and 33% for indoor and outdoor, respectively) followed by Aspergillus/ Penicillium (9% and 2%) among predominant genera of fungi. Increased culturability of fungi inside the homes may have important implications because of the potential increase in the release of allergens from viable spores and pathogenicity of viable fungi on immunocompromised individuals.

show abstract

Section: Culturabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, we believe that the airborne fungi should be collected for the CFU and total enumeration using the same sampler and the same collection media. E.g., Toivola et al (2002) utilized filter collection of airborne microorganisms with subsequent extraction for culturable and total fungi.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Lee

Grinshpun

Martuzevičius

et al. 2006

Atmospheric Environment

Self Cite

136

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The most abundant indoor (cultivable) airborne bacteria are gram-positive cocci, such as Micrococcus and Staphylococcus, which represented 38% of the composition of airborne bacteria discovered in a survey of 100 buildings in the USA while they equaled 100% of what was found inside the sampled dwellings in a Poland study (Górny and Dutkiewicz 2002;Tsai and Macher 2005). It is noted that culture-based techniques can identify less than 1% of the indoor microbial community and instead indentify the species that are easily cultured (Toivola et al 2002). Micrococcus spp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Experimental and Numerical Study on Deposition of Bioaerosols in a Scaled Chamber

Wong

Chan

Mui

et al. 2010

Aerosol Science and Technology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This work presents an experimental facility designed and built with the objective of understanding the deposition of bioaerosols in indoor environments. Multiple depositions of two microorganisms Staphylococcus and Micrococcus inside a test chamber were investigated under two air mixing conditions. Airflow rate was demonstrated to have an influence on the concentration homogeneity. An increased proportion of particle deposition was found in the floor section near the chamber wall opposite to the air inlet when air mixing was not enhanced by the mixing fans. Both the experimental results and Eulerian-Lagrangian computations revealed that a small mixing fan inside the chamber prompted very effective mixing while non-homogeneity was observed even at a very high ventilation rate. The results showed that both ventilation rate and mixing conditions in the ventilated chamber have influence on the bioaerosol dispersion and deposition.

show abstract

“…Study protocol, measurement, and sample analysis techniques are presented in detail by Toivola et al (2002Toivola et al ( , 2004a, and are only shortly described below. A random sample of 81 elementary school teachers was selected from the total of 823 teachers working in eastern Finland.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Along with the exposure measurements, health questionnaire data was collected from the studied individuals. Therefore, this study focused on analyzing the health data, whereas the detailed analyses of the exposure data is reported elsewhere (Toivola et al, 2002(Toivola et al, , 2004a. The specific aims of this study were to (1) study the agreement between questionnaire responses when using different recall periods, and (2) study the associations between elementary school teachers' health symptoms and both personal and microenvironmental concentrations of particles and microbial aerosol.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personal and microenvironmental concentrations of particles and microbial aerosol in relation to health symptoms among teachers

Haverinen‐Shaughnessy¹,

Toivola²,

Alm³

et al. 2006

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A total of 81 randomly selected elementary school teachers participated in two sampling campaigns conducted 2 weeks apart during the winter. A 24-h sample collection was performed using personal and microenvironmental sampling from homes, and an 8-h sample collection was performed from workplaces of the studied subjects. Filters were analyzed for particle mass, absorption coefficient of the filter, and for both total and viable microorganisms. Comprehensive questionnaire responses were collected from the teachers concerning weekly occurred symptoms during the previous 12-month period, and they filled in symptom diaries immediately after each sampling campaign concerning symptoms during the previous 24-h and 7-day periods. The effect of different recall periods on agreement between questionnaire responses was assessed. Factor analysis was used in order to identify factors explaining the pattern of correlations within the personal, home, and work measurements. Moreover, associations between personal, home, and work measurements of pollutants and symptoms were analyzed using general estimation equations. The recall period of 7 days seemed to provide the most reliable data for the health effect assessment. Information from the factor analysis may allow reduction of variables related to the exposure assessment, and better interpretation of results. Both personal exposure and concentrations of pollutants at home were more frequently associated with health symptoms than concentrations at work. In multipollutant analyses, absorbance coefficient was positively associated with eye symptoms, and total bacteria with both cough and blocked nose.

show abstract

Personal exposures and microenvironmental concentrations of particles and bioaerosols

Cited by 114 publications

References 49 publications

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

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

An Experimental and Numerical Study on Deposition of Bioaerosols in a Scaled Chamber

Personal and microenvironmental concentrations of particles and microbial aerosol in relation to health symptoms among teachers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About