Determination of seasonal indoor/outdoor fungal ratios and indoor bacterial levels in non-complaint office buildings

There were six primary objectives of this study. The objectives included the determination of (1) baseline seasonal airborne fungal and bacterial levels in three normal or non-complaint office buildings in three different cities, (2) which monitored factors affect bioaerosol levels, (3) whether indoor and outdoor levels are correlated or from the same distribution, (4) median indoor/outdoor fungal ratio, (5) whether fungal genera found indoors are similar to those found outdoors, and (6) the coefficient of variation of the sampling method. A non-complaint office building was defined as one in which no employee complaints associated with indoor air quality had been reported during the previous year. Two Andersen single-stage viable microbial samplers were used to collect duplicate fungal and bacterial samples at three indoor and two outdoor sites at an office building in each city. Samples were collected on a Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday of each season at each building for a total of 36 days sampled and 720 culture samples. Median indoor and outdoor bacterial levels were 40 (range 0-292) cfu/m...