Indoor air Quality in Offices and Classrooms in Public Utility Building - A Case Study

Abstract

Abstract A microbiological analysis of indoor air quality in offices, lecture rooms, and hallways in a public utility building has been carried out in the Lubuskie Voivodship (Poland). In one of the storage rooms, the presence of fungi on the building partition was found in the place of water infiltration as a result of a technological failure in the building. A total of 17 non-residential interiors were examined. The total number of psychrophilic and mesophilic bacteria and the total number of fungi were sampled by the collision method with the air sampler. A qualitative analysis has been performed of fungi present in the indoor air and from building partition of the studied interiors. A total of 11 species of fungi have been specified. Relative humidity and air temperature were measured with a hygrometer. The studies showed that the number of psychrophilic bacteria in indoor air was in the range 0–730 CFU/m3, while the number of mesophilic bacteria was slightly higher (0 - 896 CFU/m3). A high level of contamination and a large number of fungi (734 CFU/m3) were found in the indoor air of storage room, where the problem of biodeterioration of building partitions occurred. In the remaining rooms, the level of microorganisms was low or moderate. Microbiological tests of the outdoor air (background) did not reveal an excessive number of microorganisms in the air.