Effect of environmental parameters on culturability and viability of dust accumulated fungi in different HVAC segments

Zhijian Liu*, Hang Yin, Shengyuan Ma, Bing Wei, Benjamin Jensen, Guoqing Cao

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

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Abstract

Fungal contamination in dust accumulated on inner surface of the heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems has closely association with indoor human health. Dust samples were collected from 24 central HVAC system installed in office buildings in Beijing, China. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the distribution of fungal spore, culturable and viable fungi loading in five HVAC segments including the segments of fresh air, return air, mixture air, cooling and supply air. Fungal culturability and viability in dust samples collected from each sampling site were calculated and compared. The effects of environmental parameters and deposition dust loading on fungal concentrations, fungal culturability and viability were investigated by the Pearson correlation. In addition, predominant fungal species in deposition dust accumulation were identified, and its occurrence rates and relative abundances were also determined. These results could provide some useful information for fungal contamination control in HVAC system.
Original languageEnglish
Article number101538
JournalSustainable Cities and Society
Volume48
Number of pages8
ISSN2210-6707
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Keywords

  • Culturable fungi
  • Dust deposition
  • Five HVAC segments
  • Fungal culturability
  • Fungal viability

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