The Contribution of Yeasts to Occupant Exposure in an Office Building with Water Incursion

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cox-Gasner J ; Croston T ; Green B ; Lemons, Angela R. ; Park, Ju-Hyeong
• Description:
  Rationale: Occupants of a water-damaged office building experienced post occupancy-onset asthma that was associated with exposure to fungi in floor dust. In this study, measures of fungal burden and diversity were employed to determine the fungi present in the environment that could contribute to work-related illness. Methods: Floor dust was collected from workstations in an office building that had known water incursion prior to (n=27) and one year following (n=27) building remediation. Viable culture, ergosterol measurements, and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region sequencing were utilized to determine fungal load and diversity within office floor dust. Results: Viable culture and ergosterol concentrations demonstrated slight decreases in fungal load following remediation that were not significant. Interestingly, 60% of culturable fungi in pre-remediation samples were unicellular yeasts. ITS sequencing revealed many of these to be Ascomycota yeasts belonging to the order Saccharomycetales as well as Basidiomycota yeasts in the orders Tremellales and Cystofilobasidiales. Following remediation, yeasts continued to dominate the culturable fungi (78%) and many of the same species remained most abundant. Fungi in the orders Pleosporales and Capnodiales were also highly abundant in pre-remediation and to a greater extent in post-remediation samples. Conclusions: These data suggest that unicellular yeasts may have significant contributions to personal exposure in water-damaged indoor environments. Remediation did not significantly alter yeast burden or diversity. Other fungal species, specifically those in the order Pleosporales, were abundant in pre- and post-remediation environments, suggesting that while remediation may decrease fungal burden, it does not necessarily alter the diversity of fungi present in indoor environments. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Asthma Asthma, Occupational Dust Fungi Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Dust Exposure Indoor Environments Yeasts
• ISSN:
  0091-6749
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  HELD - Health Effects Laboratory Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  151
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20070239
• Citation:
  J Allergy Clin Immunol 2023 Feb; 151(2)(Suppl):AB197
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2023
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
• Supplement:
  Suppl
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2071eb4fa1fb69da74edd1c0901b913e86dfbbddc800641e87bca8410859b43a8aef56ad92490a7d9f462e9e5ede016601286205a7e9ec83e83949bcd5582846
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/208488/cdc_208488_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 101.74 KB ]