Characterization of environmental chambers for evaluating microbial growth on building materials. Report for September 1991-March 1992

Technical Report · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:6803042

Foarde, K; Cole, E; VanOsdell, D; Bush, D; Franke, D

The paper discusses the use of a static chamber with known environmental conditions to study the ability of microorganisms to grow on a variety of building materials, as a first step in the development of prevention and control strategies for biocontaminants in indoor air quality. A series of preliminary studies utilizing these chambers are presented in the paper and demonstrate the potential value of the static chamber design. Initial experiments have been performed evaluating the effect of relative humidity (RH) on ceiling tile blocks of varying moisture content. The data presented here are preliminary results on the use of these static chambers in assessing the effect of five RHs on the ability of Penicillium aragonense to grow on pieces of aged ceiling tile. Blocks in the 97 percent RH chamber with an equilibrium moisture content of about 5 percent yielded an increase of microorganisms by two orders of magnitude within 14 days.

• Research Organization: Research Triangle Inst., Durham, NC (United States)
• OSTI ID: 6803042
• Report Number(s): PB-93-131597/XAB; CNN: EPA-R-817083-01-0
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
BUILDINGS
INDOOR AIR POLLUTION
MICROORGANISMS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
AIR POLLUTION ABATEMENT
AIR QUALITY
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
BUILDING MATERIALS
COMPILED DATA
CONSTRUCTION
CONTROL
DESIGN
ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
EQUILIBRIUM
GROWTH
HUMIDITY
MOISTURE
PENICILLIUM
STATISTICAL DATA
AIR POLLUTION
DATA
ENGINEERING
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
EUMYCOTA
FUNGI
INFORMATION
MATERIALS
NUMERICAL DATA
PLANTS
POLLUTION
POLLUTION ABATEMENT
320107* - Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization- Building Systems- (1987-)