Abstract

Towards standardizing indoor fungal growth assessment

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Abstract

Indoor fungal contamination has significant implications for both structural integrity and public health. Benchmarking fungal levels across the UK building stock requires standardized testing protocols to ensure comparability of results. Current fungal sampling protocols use a wide ranging sampling and analysis techniques, vary between non-activated and activated approaches and typically do not detail the pre-sampling environmental conditions, leading to inconsistencies in reported fungal loads. This study investigates fungal contamination levels in 20 rooms across 8 homes in the UK using activated air sampling techniques. A leaf blower was used to resuspend settled particles before air sampling, and fungal biomass quantification was performed using both impaction and filtration methods. The correlation analysis of fungal levels with various fungal species and allergen loads highlighted inconsistencies arising from different environmental settings prior to testing. The findings stress the necessity of standardizing sampling protocols to improve reliability. Future research should focus on refining testing methodologies to ensure that environmental settings prior to sampling remain consistent across studies. This standardization would enhance the comparability of fungal contamination levels across different buildings and allow for a more robust benchmarking framework within the UK building stock.

Keywords: Non-activated sampling, fungi, sampling, fungal testing, mould

How to Cite:

Efthymiopoulos, S., Aktas, Y. D. & Altamirano, H., (2025) “Towards standardizing indoor fungal growth assessment”, UCL Open Environment 7(S1). doi: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444/ucloe.icmb25.a7

Rights: Author, [2025]