Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2004

November 30, 2004

Air- and Dustborne Mycoflora in Houses Free of Water Damage and

Fungal Growth

W. Elliott Horner,1* G. Worthan,1 and Philip R. Morey2

Air Quality Sciences, Inc., Marietta, Georgia,1 Air Quality

Sciences, Inc., Gettysburg, Pennsylvania2

Received 5 February 2004/ Accepted 25 June 2004

Typically, studies on indoor fungal growth in buildings focus on

structures with known or suspected water damage, moisture, and/or

indoor fungal growth problems. Reference information on types of

culturable fungi and total fungal levels are generally not available

for buildings without these problems. This study assessed 50

detached single-family homes in metropolitan Atlanta, Ga., to

establish a baseline of " normal and typical " types and

concentrations of airborne and dustborne fungi in urban homes which

were predetermined not to have noteworthy moisture problems or

indoor fungal growth. Each home was visually examined, and samples

of indoor and outdoor air and of indoor settled dust were taken in

winter and summer. The results showed that rankings by prevalence

and abundance of the types of airborne and dustborne fungi did not

differ from winter to summer, nor did these rankings differ when air

samples taken indoors were compared with those taken outdoors. Water

indicator fungi were essentially absent from both air and dust

samples. The air and dust data sets were also examined specifically

for the proportions of colonies from ecological groupings such as

leaf surface fungi and soil fungi. In the analysis of dust for

culturable fungal colonies, leaf surface fungi constituted a

considerable portion (>20%) of the total colonies in at least 85% of

the samples. Thus, replicate dust samples with less than 20% of

colonies from leaf surface fungi are unlikely to be from buildings

free of moisture or mold growth problems.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Air Quality Sciences, Inc.,

1337 Capital Circle, Marietta, GA 30067. Phone: (770) 933-0638. Fax:

(770) 933-0641. E-mail: ehorner@....

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2004, p. 6394-6400,

Vol. 70, No. 11

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