Characteristics of indoor and outdoor airborne fungi at suburban and urban homes in two seasons

Literature has suggested association between damp environments, microbial exposure, and higher prevalence of respiratory symptoms and diseases. The study began by evaluating the airborne fungal concentrations at urban and suburban areas of a typical metropolitan city in southern Taiwan for the estim...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Science of the total environment 2000-05, Vol.253 (1), p.111-118
Main Authors: Wu, Pei-Chih, Su, Huey-Jen, Lin, Chia-Yin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air Microbiology
Air Pollution, Indoor
Aspergillus
Cladosporium
Fungal exposure
Fungi - growth & development
Fungi - isolation & purification
Housing
Penicillium
Season
Seasons
Suburban
Suburban Health
Taiwan
Urban
Urban Health
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Summary:Literature has suggested association between damp environments, microbial exposure, and higher prevalence of respiratory symptoms and diseases. The study began by evaluating the airborne fungal concentrations at urban and suburban areas of a typical metropolitan city in southern Taiwan for the estimation of related health risks. A group of representative homes, based on the housing characteristics questionnaires completed earlier, were selected from two parts of the city; urban and suburban. Burkard sampler (BURKARD, Rickmansworth, England) was used to collect airborne fungi onto agar plates with malt-extract. After incubation and identification, concentrations of airborne fungi were calculated as CFU/m 3. The geometric mean (GM) concentration for indoors was 8946 (4372–18 306) CFU/m 3 in winter and 4381 (1605–11 956) in summer. For outdoors, it was 11 464 (5767–22 788) CFU/m 3 in winter and 4689 (1895–11 603) in summer. In summer, the total fungal concentration, both indoors and outdoors of suburban homes, were significantly higher than those of urban homes. The dominant fungi contributing to such a difference were indoor Cladosporium spp. and outdoor Penicillium spp. ( P
ISSN:0048-9697
1879-1026
DOI:10.1016/S0048-9697(00)00423-X