Tools to improve built environment data collection for indoor microbial ecology investigations

Ramos, Tiffanie; Stephens, Brent

doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2014.07.004

Cited by 28 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 167 publications

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“…A small number of studies discuss window‐opening and HVAC system‐use behavior in commercial/non‐residential buildings (e.g., D'Oca and Hong, ; Fabi et al., ; Li et al., ; Ramos and Stephens, ; Roetzel et al., ; Stephens, ). Two recent studies (Bennett et al., ; Chan et al., ) conducted detailed measurements of AERs and ventilation rates in thirty‐seven commercial buildings and nineteen retail stores, respectively, and provided summary statistics for various building types (e.g., grocery stores, hardware stores, restaurants, healthcare facilities, and public assembly spaces) and for varying ventilation conditions (e.g., with doors open/closed, with and without mechanical ventilation systems in use).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indoor inhalation intake fractions of fine particulate matter: review of influencing factors

et al. 2015

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Exposure to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) is a major contributor to the global human disease burden. The indoor environment is of particular importance when considering the health effects associated with PM 2.5 exposures because people spend the majority of their time indoors and PM 2.5 exposures per unit mass emitted indoors are two to three orders of magnitude larger than exposures to outdoor emissions. Variability in indoor PM 2.5 intake fraction ( ), which is defined as the integrated cumulative intake of PM 2.5 per unit of emission, is driven by a combination of building-specific, human-specific, and pollutant-specific factors. Due to a limited availability of data characterizing these factors, however, indoor emissions and intake of PM 2.5are not commonly considered when evaluating the environmental performance of product life cycles. With the aim of addressing this barrier, a literature review was conducted and data characterizing factors influencing were compiled. In addition to providing data for the calculation of in various indoor environments and for a range geographic regions, this paper discusses remaining limitations to the incorporation of PM 2.5 -derived health impacts into life cycle assessments and makes recommendations regarding future research. Accepted ArticleThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Practical ImplicationsThis paper reviews and summarizes the factors that influence indoor inhalation intake fraction of fine particulate matter, with a focus on primary particle emissions indoors. It provides valuable data for the calculation of indoor inhalation intake fraction for a range of indoor environments and contributes to the effort to incorporate PM 2.5 -derived health impacts into life cycle assessment.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indoor inhalation intake fractions of fine particulate matter: review of influencing factors

et al. 2015

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“…Indoor air is also gaining attention as an important microbial habitat (Konya and Scott, 2014), particularly given its role as a vehicle for the transmission of infectious diseases including influenza, measles and severe acute respiratory syndrome (Li et al, 2007). Like indoor surfaces, indoor air communities are strongly influenced by building design factors such as ventilation and layout, as well as patterns of human activity and occupancy (Li et al, 2007;Hospodsky et al, 2012;Kembel et al, 2014;Meadow et al, 2014a;Adams et al, 2014;Konya and Scott, 2014;Ramos and Stephens, 2014). Household air and settled dust contain abundant human skin-associated taxa including Propionibacterium, Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium and Streptococcus (Täubel et al, 2009;Hospodsky et al, 2012), and occupant skin has consequently been proposed as a major source of indoor air microbes Qian et al, 2012;Gaüzère et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indoor air bacterial communities in Hong Kong households assemble independently of occupant skin microbiomes

Wilkins

Leung

Lee

2015

Environmental Microbiology

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More than in any other habitat, humans exert a large influence on microbial communities indoors. Frequent contact between occupant skin and indoor surfaces causes indoor surface microbial communities to be largely assembled from and thus closely resemble occupant skin microbiomes. While indoor air and dust are known to also contain many human-associated taxa, household air communities have not yet been directly compared with occupant skin microbiomes. We sampled microorganisms from air, surfaces and occupant skin in 19 Hong Kong households and used Illumina sequencing of the V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene to investigate the dispersal relationships between the bacterial communities at each site. Our results confirmed that indoor surfaces bear the 'bacterial fingerprint' of household occupant skin. However, while air communities contained abundant human-associated taxa and were household specific, air communities in each household did not resemble occupant skin from that household any more than occupant skin from other households. Our results suggest that, at least in Hong Kong, indoor air bacterial communities may be assembled largely from outdoor air and occupant body sites other than skin, and unlike surface communities do not harbour the occupants' skin 'bacterial fingerprint'.

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“…67 It may be that water activity, or a surrogate for this parameter, equilibrium relative humidity near surfaces, is more related to fungal abundance in the air. 68 A comparison of bacterial and fungal communities on HVAC filters to those collected by passive samplers revealed a significant difference in community composition between the two types of samplers, irrespective of flooding conditions. HVAC filters actively collected particulate matter from the whole home, along with some particulate matter from outdoor air, 69 whereas our passive samplers only collected settled dust from basement air approximately 2.1 m above the floor.…”

Section: ■ Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Flood Damage on Airborne Bacteria and Fungi in Homes after the 2013 Colorado Front Range Flood

Emerson

Keady

Brewer

et al. 2015

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Flood-damaged homes typically have elevated microbial loads, and their occupants have an increased incidence of allergies, asthma, and other respiratory ailments, yet the microbial communities in these homes remain under-studied. Using culture-independent approaches, we characterized bacterial and fungal communities in homes in Boulder, CO, USA 2-3 months after the historic September, 2013 flooding event. We collected passive air samples from basements in 50 homes (36 flood-damaged, 14 non-flooded), and we sequenced the bacterial 16S rRNA gene (V4-V5 region) and the fungal ITS1 region from these samples for community analyses. Quantitative PCR was used to estimate the abundances of bacteria and fungi in the passive air samples. Results indicate significant differences in bacterial and fungal community composition between flooded and non-flooded homes. Fungal abundances were estimated to be three times higher in flooded, relative to non-flooded homes, but there were no significant differences in bacterial abundances. Penicillium (fungi) and Pseudomonadaceae and Enterobacteriaceae (bacteria) were among the most abundant taxa in flooded homes. Our results suggest that bacterial and fungal communities continue to be affected by flooding, even after relative humidity has returned to baseline levels and remediation has removed any visible evidence of flood damage.

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Tools to improve built environment data collection for indoor microbial ecology investigations

Cited by 28 publications

References 167 publications

Indoor inhalation intake fractions of fine particulate matter: review of influencing factors

Indoor inhalation intake fractions of fine particulate matter: review of influencing factors

Indoor air bacterial communities in Hong Kong households assemble independently of occupant skin microbiomes

Impacts of Flood Damage on Airborne Bacteria and Fungi in Homes after the 2013 Colorado Front Range Flood

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