A regional comparison of mold spore concentrations outdoors and inside 'clean' and 'mold contaminated' southern california buildings
Baxter, D., Perkins, J., Seltzer, J., Mcghee, C.
2002 American Industrial Hygiene Conference, AIHce PDCs - San Diego, June 1 - 2, Paper 169
Baxter, D., Perkins, J., Seltzer, J., Mcghee, C., (2002), "A regional comparison of mold spore concentrations outdoors and inside 'clean' and 'mold contaminated' southern california buildings", American Industrial Hygiene Conference, AIHce PDCs - San Diego, June 1 - 2, Paper 169.
Abstract:
A total of 625 buildings and outdoor locations in the San Diego, CA area were monitored using the Allergenco Sampl-Air MK-3 impaction sampler or the Zefon Air-O-Cell slit bioaerosol cassette. Locations were classified by rigid criteria as "Clean" commercial; commercial with mold growth; "Clean" residential; residential with water staining; and residential of mold growth. In addition coastal and inland outdoor locations were measured.
Seven categories (total spores, mushroom species, Cladosporium, Smut/Myxomycetes-like, Aspergillus/Penicillium (AS/PE), Alternaria, and Unidentified/Other) were detected frequently enough that maximum likelihood estimate techniques could be used to determine distribution parameters and thus treat these as continuous variables. For total counts (no non-detectables) an ANOVA was used to examine differences in location means. For the other categories Land's confidence limits were generated and visually compared for differences among locations. For 12 other categories (Curvularia, Dreschlera, Epiccocum, Fusarium, Mildew-like, Pithomyces, Rusts, Stachybotrys, Stemphyllium, Torula, Ulocladium, and Zygomycetes-like) detection generally occurred in fewer than 10% of samples. These genera were treated as dichotomous (detect/ non-detect) data, and Chi-square analyses differentiated between locations.
For total counts, values were significantly different on the order of clean< outdoor< moldy. There was a large difference between the moldy and other location classes. For AS/PE, moldy location means were clearly higher than the clean and outdoors, although the clean and outdoor means were not differentiable. For all other genera the results tend to indicate little or no ability to discriminate location. For example there were no differences in the probabilities of detecting Stachybotrys among the various locations. Therefore it appears that only total counts (primarily driven by AS/PE) have value in determining whether a building is mold contaminated using the set of rigorous location classification criteria used here for the Southern California climate.
Baxter DM, et al. A regional comparison of mold spore concentrations outdoors and inside "clean" and "mold contaminated" southern California buildings. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. 2:8-18, 2005.
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