Aerobiological evaluation in three building levels of the library of the National University of San Luis

MARIA FLORENCIA NUÑEZ SADA; EDGAR CRINÓ; MARTA MATILDE MOGLIA

Merlo San Luis

Otro; XXXV Reunión Científica anual de la Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo; 2017

Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo

Studying aerobiological content inside buildings is important, because of the allergenic properties of biological particles present in theseenvironments, especially fungal spores and pollen. Daily, hundreds of people, mainly students, utilize the facilities of the library ofthe National University of San Luis. In order to evaluate air quality inside the different areas of this building (underground, ground, andfirst floor), a continuous aerobiological sampling was performed during May 2017. Samples were taken with a volumetric samplerLanzoni (VPPS 2000) and were read using optical microscope at 400x and 1000x. The biological content was identified throughpalynological atlases and with the pollen library belonging to the Aerobiology´s laboratory. Most abundant particles in all three floorswere spores. This result was in agreement with other works carried out indoors. In the underground floor as well as on the firstfloor, Cladosporium spores were the most abundant particles peaking at 456 and 480 spores/m3 of air, respectively. Meanwhile, on theground floor, Aspergillus/Penicillium spores were the most abundant with 1910 spores/m3of air. The pollinic content was low on allfloors, recording a maximum of 2 grains of pollen/m3of air during the sampling period. Significant differences (p=0.013) of totalaerobiological content between the underground floor (620 aeroparticles/m3of air) and the first floor (2355 aeroparticles/m3of air) wereobserved, the latter containing the highest values. These differences might be explained by the higher flow of people circulating in thisfloor, who with their movements remove particles lying on diverse surfaces.