Coarse and Fine Culturable Fungal Air Concentrations in Urban and Rural Homes in Egypt

Abdel Hameed A. Awad, Shawn G. Gibbs, Patrick M. Tarwater and Christopher F. Green
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Abdel Hameed A. Awad: Air Pollution Department, National Research Centre, P.O. Box 12622, Giza 11787, Egypt
Shawn G. Gibbs: College of Public Health, Department of Environmental, Agricultural and Occupational Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 984355 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, USA
Patrick M. Tarwater: Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, 5001 El Paso Drive, El Paso, TX 79905, USA
Christopher F. Green: Science, Math and Engineering Division, University of Cincinnati Clermont College, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA

IJERPH, 2013, vol. 10, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: The main objective of the present study was to assess culturable airborne fungal concentrations, and types in different seasons. Two-stage viable impactor samplers were used with malt extract agar medium as the collection media. Culturable airborne fungal concentrations were collected indoors and outdoors of 43 homes in urban and rural environments from November 2008 to October 2009 in Egypt. Fungal concentrations were significantly higher in the rural environment than the urban environment. The median indoor and outdoor total fungal concentrations were 608 and 675 CFU/m 3 in the urban environment and 1,932 and 1,872 CFU/m 3 in the rural environment, respectively. The greatest concentrations were found in the autumn and spring season. Indoor and outdoor concentrations were significantly correlated ( P < 0.001). The highest concentrations were observed in the fungal size range of <8 µm (fine fraction). The indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratios were not statistically different between seasons. Alternaria , Aspergillus , Cladosporium , Penicillium and yeasts were the predominant genera indoors and outdoors, and the abundance of genera varied by season and region. This study is of a potential interest as little reported research on the indoor fungal air quality from Egypt.

Keywords: air; fungi; homes; rural; urban (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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