New papers on microbiology of the built environment, June 18, 2016

Microbes and disinfection Antibacterial Activity of Blue Light against Nosocomial Wound Pathogens Growing Planktonically and as Mature Biofilms – Fenella D. Halstead – Applied and Environmental Microbiology (OA) (…) Here we report the findings of a multicenter in vitro study performed to assess the antimicrobial activity of 400-nm blue light against bacteria in both planktonic and biofilm …

New papers on microbiology of the built environment, May 31, 2016

Microbes in the house Urban Dust Microbiome: Impact on Later Atopy and Wheezing – Christina Tischer – Environmental Health Perspectives (OA) Investigations in urban areas have just begun to explore how the indoor dust microbiome may affect the pathogenesis of asthma and allery. We aimed to investigate the early fungal and bacterial microbiome in house dust …

New papers on microbiology of the built environment, January 18, 2016

New papers from the past week on the interactions between humans, buildings, and microbes. Microbes in buildings  Comprehensive analysis of the skin fungal microbiota of astronauts during a half-year stay at the International Space Station – Takashi Sugita – Medical Mycology ($$) The International Space Station (ISS) is a huge manned construct located approximately 400 km …

Total Concentrations of Virus and Bacteria in Indoor and Outdoor Air

Appropriate song to play while reading this post: Mat Kearney – Breathe In, Breathe Out This paper came out last month, and I thought it would be nice to briefly mention it here, even though many other papers have looked at the concentrations of airborne bacteria and viruses as well. In this study, done by Aaron Prussin …

“Moving the office outside” But no mention of microbes.

This article, about “Moving the Office Outside” talks about the energy savings and psychological benefits of creating outdoor office spaces.   Sadly microbes don’t get a mention, even though there’s an ever-growing body of work showing that indoor air is less healthy than outdoor air (both in terms of chemical composition and microbial makeup).