U.S. Micro-Solutions, Inc. Environmental Laboratory

Air Sampling - Non-Culturable

Total spore/particle sampling methods are used to evaluate the presence of culturable and non-culturable mould spores, hyphal fragments, fruiting structures, and pollen. In commercial particle sampling devices such as the Zefon Bio-Pump, particles are drawn through a tapered slitted orifice and impacted on an adhesive-coated cover slip.  The cover slip is mounted on a microscope slide with Lactic acid and examined at 1000x magnification. Spores, conidia, and hyphal fragments are counted on the collection surface using vertical traverses.  The count is then converted to a concentration based on volume of air sampled and expressed as spores per cubic meter (Spores/m³).

• Samples should be collected for affected and non-affected areas.

• Sampling procedures should include a representative outdoor sample to provide a reference for determining whether certain genera and species are being amplified in the indoor environment.

• The flow rate recommended for total mould spore sampling is 15L/min for 3-5 minutes with Air-O-Cell , VersaTrap, and AllergencoD cassettes, and 5L/min for 5 minutes when using Micro-5 cassettes. (Longer sampling times are used for clean rooms, hospitals, and remediated areas.
  

• Seventy-five total liters is recommended as a benchmark for representative sample volume.

• In dusty or heavily polluted areas, particle overloading may occur, and sampling times/volume should be adjusted accordingly (2-3 minutes).
  

• The recommended time to run outside samples is 2 minutes.