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Background levels of fungi in NYC - white paper

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4 Rhodotorula. The remaining eighteen different genera/group were observed in less than 3% of the total sampling population. TABLE 1. Indoor airborne fungal frequencies and concentrations Organism(s) Frequency of Occurrence (%) Concentration (CFU/m 3 ) Mean Maximum 95 th percentile Acremonium 2.6 0.36 24 ND Alternaria 2.3 0.27 12 ND Aspergillus sp. 16.9 3.03 120 12 Aureobasidium 1.3 0.16 12 ND Basidiomycetes 11.1 3.66 127 24 Cladosporium 28.9 8.81 335 35 Curvularia 0.4 0.05 12 ND Epicoccum 0.8 0.11 24 ND Fusarium 0.4 0.05 12 ND Hyalodendron 0.4 0.09 35 ND Non- sporulating 11.1 1.55 47 12 Paecilomyces 1.9 0.36 71 ND Penicillium sp. 27.4 6.91 294 35 Phoma 1.5 0.18 12 ND Rhodotorula 9.0 1.49 48 12 Stachybotrys 0.8 0.20 47 ND Trichoderma 0.4 0.04 12 ND Tritirachium 1.7 0.25 24 ND Yeasts 15.8 2.30 47 12 ND = None Detected (<7 CFU/m 3 ) In the 231 outdoor air fungi samples, thirty three (33) different genera/groups were identified, with twelve of them found in more than 10% of the samples (Table 2). Total fungal levels ranged from <7 CFU/m 3 to 1,561 CFU/m 3 , with an average total of 274 CFU/m 3 . Ninety five percent of the samples had total concentrations of less than 807 CFU/m 3 , while three percent of all the samples had no fungal colonies detected. Cladosporium was recovered in 84.8% of the samples with an average concentration of 125 CFU/m 3 , followed by Penicillium (74.5%, 35 CFU/m 3 ) and Aspergillus (53.2%, 13 CFU/m 3 ). Other fungi that were commonly encountered in the outside air in descending order of frequency included basidiomycetes, Alternaria, non-sporulating fungi, yeasts, Phoma, Pithomyces and Aureobasidium.

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