Norbäck D., Mi Y., Larsson L., Wady L., Tao J., Mi Y.
Year:
2003
Bibliographic info:
Healthy Buildings 2003 - Proceedings 7th International Conference (7th-11th December 2003) - National University of Singapore - Vol. 1., pp 600-606, 4 Tab., 11 Ref.

Thirty classrooms in 10 schools in Shanghai, China, were investigated in winter. Dust wascollected by vacuum cleaning, analysed for ergosterol, muramic acid, and 3-hydroxy fattyacids (LPS) by tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MSMS). Airborne microoganisms weresampled on Nucleopore filters (CAMNEA). The compound 1-octen-3-ol was found in higherconcentrations in indoor than in outdoor air. Total indoor bacteria were positively correlatedto both LPS and muramic acid in settled dust. Indoor and outdoor air contained many viablespecies. Viable indoor moulds were positively correlated to 1-octen-3-ol in the air, andergosterol in dust. In total, 5.4% of the pupils (N = 1414) reported mould allergy/intolerance,and these complaints were higher in one school with building dampness. In conclusion, wefound a relationship between microbial components in settled dust and in classroom air, andsome types of mould were found only in indoor air samples,, but total indoor and outdoorconcentrations were similar.