[Quality of interior air: biological contaminants and their effects on health; bioaerosols and gathering techniques]

Abstract

Indoor Air Quality: biological contaminants and health effects; airborne organisms and sampling instruments. Biological contaminants include bacteria, molds, viruses, animal dander and cat saliva, house dust, mites, cockroaches and pollen. Symptoms of health problems caused by biological pollutants include sneezing, watery eyes, coughing, shortness of breath, dizziness, lethargy, fevers. Children, elderly people with breathing problems, allergies and lung diseases are particularly susceptible to disease-causing biological agents in the indoor air. It is convenient to consider microbiological samplers for collecting organisms in air as falling into several broad categories. Many popular microbiological air samplers use the principle of impaction to trap the organisms by impacting them directly on to agar. Further distinct groups are the impingers, which operate by impinging organisms into liquid.