Indoor air fungal pollution of a historical museum, Egypt: a case study

This study aims to evaluate fungal pollution in the indoor air environment, deposited dust and surfaces of works of art in a historic house museum “Prince’s Mohamed Ali museum”, Giza, Egypt. Fungal pollution was evaluated at six museum’s buildings differed in size, design, location and content, for 2 years of campaign. The deposited dust was collected once every 3 months, while surface swabs were collected twice, after 1 year and 2 years of exposure. Airborne fungal concentrations were evaluated using volumetric (Andersen 2 stage impactor) and gravimetric (index microbial air contamination) air samplers. Airborne fungal concentrations ranged within 47–784 CFU/m3 and 175 –40,250 CFU/m2/h using volumetric and gravimetric samplers, respectively. Indoor/outdoor ratio confirmed that outdoor environment was the main source of indoor fungal pollution. The rate of deposited dust was  ~ 90-folds lower indoor than outdoor. Fungal concentrations associated deposited dust ranged between 102 and 104 CFU/g, representing a cause of concern. In respect to medium type, fungal diversity profile was in order of deposited dust ≥ airborne ≥ surfaces.Alternaria,Aspergillus andCladosporium were the common fungal taxa. Secondary and tertiary fungal colonizers were detected after 2  years of exposure, indicating the presence of adequate moisture content inside the museum. No clear relationship patterns were found between microclimatic conditions and fungal cultu...
Source: Aerobiologia - Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research