Exposure to microbial volatile organic compounds in a waste-handling unit

• Autor(es): Viegas, Susana ; Malta-Vacas, Joana ; Viegas, Carla
• Data: 2012
• Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/1929
• Origem: Repositório Científico do Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa
• Assunto(s): Saúde ambiental; Environmental health; Saúde ocupacional; Occupational health; MVOC; Fungi; Waste-handling unit
• Tipo de Documento: Documento de conferência
• Idioma: Inglês

Descrição

The production of MVOC by fungi has been taken into account especially from the viewpoint of indoor pollution with microorganisms but the relevance of fungal metabolites in working environments has not been sufficiently studied. The purpose of this study was to assess exposure to MVOCs in a waste-handling unit. It was used Multirae equipment (RAE Systems) to measured MVOCs concentration with a 10.6 eV lamps. The measurements were done near workers nose and during the normal activities. All measurements were done continuously and had the duration of 5 minutes at least. It was consider the higher value obtained in each measurement. In addition, for knowing fungi contamination, five air samples of 50 litres were collected through impaction method at 140 L/minute, at one meter tall, on to malt extract agar with the antibiotic chloramphenicol (MEA). MVOCs results range between 4.7 ppm and 8.9 ppm in the 6 locations consider. These results are eight times higher than normally obtained in indoor settings. Considering fungi results, two species were identified in air, being the genera Penicillium found in all the samples in uncountable colonies and Rhizopus only in one sample (40 UFC/m3). These fungi are known as MVOCs producers, namely terpenoids, ketones, alcohols and others. Until now, there has been no evidence that MVOCs are toxicologically relevant, but further epidemiological research is necessary to elucidate their role on human’s health, particularly in occupational settings where microbiological contamination is common. Additionally, further research should concentrate on quantitative analyses of specific MVOCs.