Emissions of Fungal Volatile Organic Compounds in Residential Environments and Temporal Emission Patterns: Implications for Sampling Methods

Kyunghoon Kim, Suyeon Lee, Yelim Choi and Daekeun Kim ()
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Kyunghoon Kim: Department of Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Seoul 01811, Korea
Suyeon Lee: Department of Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Seoul 01811, Korea
Yelim Choi: Department of Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Seoul 01811, Korea
Daekeun Kim: Department of Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Seoul 01811, Korea

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-13

Abstract: Currently, little is known about the occurrences of fungi-derived microbial volatile organic compounds (mVOCs) in various indoor materials and their detection in residential environments, despite mVOCs being linked to several acute health effects. We identified various mVOCs emitted from fungi grown on PVC wallpaper, silicone rubber, and malt extract agar. We also investigated mVOCs temporal emission and whether fungi-derived VOCs concentration can be used to estimate fungal concentration in the air using active and passive air sampling methods. Among the three fungal growth media included in this study, silicone rubber produced the most variety of mVOCs: 106 compounds (from Aspergillus niger ), 35 compounds (from Alternaria alternata ), and 85 compounds (from Penicillium chrysogenum ). We also found the emission patterns of eight chemical classes (i.e., aromatics, ethers, aliphatics, alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, chlorides, and nitrides) from the three different fungi. From the results of our field experiments in 11 residential environments, passive air samplers led to higher correlations coefficients (0.08 to 0.86) between mVOCs’ air concentrations and airborne fungal concentrations, compared with active air samplers, which showed negative correlation coefficients (−0.99 to −0.02) for most compounds. This study elucidated the occurrence and temporal emission patterns of fungal VOCs in residential environments.

Keywords: mVOCs; fungi; emission; indoor materials; chamber experiment; field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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