Assessment of airborne fungi in indoor environment for biological lab rooms

Abstract

Fungi can cause airborne diseases that need to consider in health plans due to its risk and threats of many communities worldwide. This study aims to assess indoor air quality of laboratory room environment for health industry sector. Open plate method was used to collect and culture of airborne fungi from 12 rooms of laboratories in faculty and hospital buildings. Identification of filamentous fungi grown on culture plates was based on standard mycological texts and manual. The results showed that the occurrence frequency and relative abundance were used to show the risk of airborne fungi. The colony forming unit of fungi species isolated from air samples of faculty and hospital laboratories were 304 and 83 respectively. Thirteen fungi genera including twenty-one species were identified overall air samples. The predominant fungi were Aspergillus, Penicillium and Alternaria among fungi. Among these species the most prevalence fungi was Penicillium chrysogenum at the highest at species level. Therefore, it is essential to set urgent steps to enhance the indoor air quality in laboratory environment such as providing air purification system in these labs.