ArticleJournal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology2018
Quantitative assessment of microbes from samples of indoor air and dust.
Article in Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Indoor Microbiome: Sampling, Analysis and Emerging Trends.Environmental microbiology reports · 2026Pooled it
- Environmental microbiota transfer from forest soil into urban homes: a proof-of-principle study.Microbiome · 2026Article
- Detection of Microbial Growth on Indoor Building Materials in Two Countries Using qPCR.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Article
- Distinct bacterial community structures and arsenic biotransformation gene profiles in dust.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Identification of environmental Actinobacteria in buildings by means of chemotaxonomy, 16S rRNA sequencing, and MALDI-TOF MS.Microbiology spectrum · 2024Article
- A comprehensive review of microbial contamination in the indoor environment: sources, sampling, health risks, and mitigation strategies.Frontiers in public health · 2023Review
- Surface fungal diversity and several mycotoxin-related genes' expression profiles during the Lunar Palace 365 experiment.Microbiome · 2022Article
- Environmental DNA reveals diversity and abundance ofAerobiologia · 2022Article
- Modeling microbial growth in carpet dust exposed to diurnal variations in relative humidity using the "Time-of-Wetness" framework.Indoor air · 2020Article
- Review
- Human airway construct model is suitable for studying transcriptome changes associated with indoor air particulate matter toxicity.Indoor air · 2020Article
- Bacterial community analysis of floor dust and HEPA filters in air purifiers used in office rooms in ILAS, Beijing.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Spatio-temporal variations in bacterial and fungal community associated with dust aerosol in Kuwait.PloS one · 2020Article
- Ten questions concerning the implications of carpet on indoor chemistry and microbiology.Building and environment · 2019Article
- Farm-like indoor microbiota in non-farm homes protects children from asthma development.Nature medicine · 2019Article
- Article
- Precision public health to inhibit the contagion of disease and move toward a future in which microbes spread health.BMC infectious diseases · 2019Review
- Does the air condition system in busses spread allergic fungi into driver space?Environmental science and pollution research international · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Different types of house dust samples are widely used as surrogates of airborne inhalation exposure in studies assessing health effects of indoor microbes. Here we studied-in a quantitative assessment-the representativeness of different house dust samples of indoor air (IA) and investigated seasonality and reproducibility of indoor samples. Microbial exposure was measured five times over 1 year in four rural and five urban Finnish homes. Six sampling methods were used: button inhalable aerosol sampler (actively collected personal and indoor air sampling), settled dust, floor dust, mattress dust and vacuum cleaner dust bag dust; the latter three referred to herein as "reservoir dust samples". Using quantitative PCR, we quantified the fungal species Cladosporium herbarum, the fungal group Penicillium/Aspergillus/Paecilomyces variotii, total fungal DNA, and Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. We observed significant differences in microbial levels between rural and urban homes, most pronounced for personal air samples. Fungal species and groups but not total fungal DNA in indoor air correlated moderately to well with reservoir dust and with personal air samples. For bacterial groups, the correlations between air and dust were generally lower. Samples of indoor air and settled dust reflected similarly seasonal variation in microbial levels and were also similar compositionally, as assessed by ratios of qPCR markers. In general, determinations from mattress dust and other reservoir samples were better reproducible in repeated assessments over time than from indoor air or settled dust. This study indicates that settled dust reflects the microbial composition of indoor air and responds similarly to environmental determinants. Reservoir dusts tend to predict better microbial levels in indoor air and are more reproducible. Sampling strategies in indoor studies need to be developed based on the study questions and may need to rely on more than one type of sample.
Indexed as
Identifiers
28975927What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.