We recently wrote about moldy documents in French archives and a higher incidence of asthma among workers who handled documents than others working in the same spaces but not handling them. See our previous post: “Hands off the moldy docs (for your own good?)” Now we find researchers reported that bacteria can also be transferred …
Rob Dunn of North Carolina State University has written a charming and fascinating piece on the microbes that inhabit our belly buttons. You can find it here on the Scientific American blog site (http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/11/07/after-two-years-scientists-still-cant-solve-belly-button-mystery-continue-navel-gazing/). I strongly recommend it for the skill of his writing as well as the extremely interesting insights into the microbes in …
Destaillats et al 2011. “Secondary pollutants from ozone reactions with ventilation filters and degradation of filter media additives”, Atmospheric Environment, vol. 45, no. 21, p. 3561-3568, 2011. Can be freely downloaded from LBL.gov web site as LBNL-4829E.pdf (692.59 KB) http://iepubs.lbl.gov/publications/author/22
A paper has been uploaded to the Mendeley group associated with microbe.net, Microbiology of the Built Environment (http://www.mendeley.com/groups/844031/microbiology-of-the-built-environment/). Appropriately, the title of the paper is as accurate as it is concise: “Indoor air purification and decontamination by a new highly-efficient air purification technology with filter sterilization and impact of air exchange rate on bacteria and …
An interesting review article from Linsey Marr’s group at Virginia Tech looking at the various factors that might influence virion survival in aerosols. Abstract below: Many airborne viruses have been shown to be sensitive to ambient humidity, yet the mechanisms responsible for this phenomenon remain elusive. We review multiple hypotheses, including water activity, surface inactivation, …
Lots of attention to disease transmission and illness related to air travel lately. A new paper in the journal Indoor Air suggests that if passengers would wear N-95 respirators when they fly, they could significantly reduce their risk of infection. You can read the paper “Risk assessment of airborne infectious diseases in aircraft cabins” at …
An article in the Sunday NYT on the Ecology of Disease — paints with a very broad brush that ignores the role of the microbiology of the built (and especially the indoor) environment, where we spend most of our time and most likely acquire most of our diseases. What the article ignores underscores the importance …
Every day there are numerous news reports dealing with “mold” and the built environment. It’s usually a mix of scaremongering, cleaning suggestions, and the occasional bit of interesting science. Generally we avoid this topic, since surprisingly little is actually known about what fungal species are actually associated with human health impacts. This story just caught …
Interesting new paper on cleaning surfaces … and what seems to work or not work: Residual viral and bacterial contamination of surfaces after cleaning and disinfection. It is an advanced PDF in AEM – not sure if people have access to the advanced PDF or not – unclear if those are freely available. I have added it …
The publication of a paper “Tracking a Hospital Outbreak of Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae with Whole-Genome Sequencing” has drawn a lot of attention, presumably in large part because it occurred at an NIH facility. [http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/4/148/148ra116.full.html, DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3004129] I work on the microBEnet project as a “building scientist” to help achieve the Sloan Foundation’s programs goals of …