Microbes in the house Fungal and bacterial growth in floor dust at elevated relative humidity levels — Karen C. Dannemiller — Indoor Air ($6 to rent, $38 to own) Under sustained, elevated building moisture conditions, bacterial and fungal growth occurs. The goal of this study was to characterize microbial growth in floor dust at variable …
So having gained a reputation as the toilet guy (e.g. Slate, RedOrbit, microBEnet) I felt like I just had to write about this article. Plus it sounds really cool. This article is by Jennifer Fouquier (also cool) who is in Scott Kelly’s lab at UC San Diego San Diego State. The title “Rapid assemblage of …
Not exactly earth shattering results here but I am glad to see microbial surveys in the indoor environment getting attention around the globe. Here is a paper on a survey done in public bathrooms in Nigeria: Nworie et al.
As soon as I heard about this story I figured there was going to be a lot of scare-mongering news coverage about all the scary things waiting to ambush you in public restrooms. But in fact, most of what I read was quite reasonable and gave this well-done study a fair shake. This study, from …
Another cool example of using beneficial microbes in the indoor environment… in this case using Bacillus strains to reduced odors in pub urinals. The company (CBIO) that markets this device called the “Clearinator” also has other neat sounding microbial-based devices such as the “Bactaerator” and the “Baccelerator”. Pretty simple really, they find bacterial strains that …