Preliminary evaluation of air quality in premises of the Cuban Office of Industrial Property

Abstract

The microbiological study was carried out in two departments of the Cuban Office of Industrial Property, with the objectives of determining the environmental fungal concentration, the quality of the environments and the biodeteriogenic capacity of the isolated environmental fungi. Microbiological sampling was performed both indoors and outdoors with a SAS biocollector and Petri dishes with an appropriate culture medium. The indoor/outdoor relationship (I/E), indicative of environmental quality, and Sørensen's coefficient of similarity (QS) were determined to compare the composition of taxa obtained in indoor environments with outdoor environments. Temperature and relative humidity were measured at the time of sampling. Cellulolytic, amylolytic and proteolytic activity, as well as pigment and acid excretion, were qualitatively determined from all strains. The average temperature in the premises fluctuated between 26°C and 26.8°C and the relative humidity between 67.1% and 71.3%. The fungal concentrations ranged between 47 and 350 CFU/m³. Most of the premises showed I/E indices ≤ 1.0 indicative of good quality environments, only one premises revealed a value of 2.7 typical of a poor quality environment and poor air circulation. A high QS was observed among fungal taxa, indicating that the external environment influenced the interior environment of the premises. The predominant taxa in indoor air were Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Penicillium, and a non-sporulating mycelium. 100% of the studied strains degraded starch, cellulolytic strains ranged between 86.6% and 96.6%, 63.3% degraded gelatin, 46.7% excreted acids, while only 40% of the strains excreted pigments. These results demonstrated that environmental fungi have a wide biodeteriogenic potential, which represents a high risk for documentary collections