Characterization of relational descriptors of bioaerosol data
Spicer, R. and Gangloff, H.
2002
American Industrial Hygiene Conference, AIHce PDCs - San Diego, June 1 - 2, paper 171
Spicer, R. and Gangloff, H., (2002), "Characterization of relational descriptors of bioaerosol data", American Industrial Hygiene Conference, AIHce PDCs - San Diego, June 1 - 2, paper 171.
| Abstract: |
| R. Spicer, Centrenel, Inc., Haddonfield, NJ; H. Gangloff, Hudson International, Wayne, PA
Culturable airborne fungal spore sampling at several sites experiencing obvious microbial amplification during the period 1998-2001, provided a bank of data to characterize two relational mathematical descriptors for bioaerosol data. The variable fNP is defined as the proportion of the colony forming units (CFU's) of nonphylloplane fungi (all genera except Cladosporium, Alternaria, Epicoccum, and Aureobasidium) to the total. The variable fSF is defined as the proportion of the CFU's of soil fungi (specified as Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Eurotium) to the sum of phylloplane (Cladosporium, Alternaria, and Epicoccum) and soil fungi. For each site, both proportions were calculated for indoor air (n=469) and outdoor air (n=438) samples, and both revealed approximately normal distributions.
In the outdoor air fNP revealed a range of 0.03 to 0.82, while fSF ranged from 0.02 to 0.78. Generally, both proportions indicated a significant difference (t means) when comparing the indoor environments supporting fungal amplification to outdoor air. However, neither fNP nor fSF was useful in identifying significant differences when the outdoor air revealed a high value for either proportion. That is, high values of fNP or fSF in the outdoor air obscure indoor elevations of problematic fungi such as Aspergillus or Penicillium. Similarly, a potential significant difference between indoor air and outdoor can be masked if indoor amplification is the result of phylloplane fungi.
The variability of fNP and fSF across the sites, upon which the indoor air levels are dependent, precludes setting a specific numerical value for "acceptability" of the indoor environment without a comparison to the outdoor air. While either fNP or fSF is appropriate in many cases for a preliminary evaluation, neither is rigorous enough to be used for building diagnosis since individual species are not evaluated. |
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