Mold caused by indoor temperature and humidity is related to inflammatory reactions such as rhinitis, asthma, and allergic skin diseases. The subjects were children aged 3-7 in Seocheon-gun, Chungcheongnam-do. For indoor environmental measurement, a mold collection medium was installed on the sampling device and samples were collected at 28.3 L/min for 7 minutes. The sampling device was installed at a height of 1.2 m to 1.5 m above the ground to collect samples. The demographic characteristics of the children in the 90 households that participated in the survey were 53 males (58.9%) and 37 females (41.1%). The majority of the children were 5 years old (26 people or 28.9%), followed by 6 year olds (23 people or 25.6%), 7 year olds (18 people or 20.0%), 4 year olds (18 people or 20.0%), and 8 year olds (5 people or 5.6%). Among the characteristics listed on the questionnaire, 11 children (12.2%) were diagnosed with asthma, and 63 subjects (70%) had not been diagnosed by a doctor in the past 12 months. Regarding symptoms exhibited by the parents, 4 fathers (4.5%) and 2 mothers (2.2%) had symptoms. In the relationship between asthma and the concentration of other indoor environmental substances, the average concentration of mold was 57.0 CFU/m3 for non-asthmatics and 14.5 CFU/m3 for asthmatics, showing a statistically significant difference. The average concentration of house dust mites was 338.9 ng/g in non-asthmatics and 79.5 ng/g in asthmatics, showing a statistically significant difference.

To obtain basic data on bioaerosols in the indoor environments of houses located adjacent to Gwangyang Iron Works, the concentration and diversity of indoor air molds were comparatively investigated in 33 houses in September of 2016 and 2017, respectively. In areas both adjacent to and nonadjacent to Gwangyang Iron Works, house temperature and humidity ranged from 24~28oC and 47~57%, respectively. Airborne mold concentration was higher in the houses located nonadjacent than in the ones adjacent to the iron works. Interestingly, the level of airborne mold concentration exceeded 500 CFU/m3 in all houses nonadjacent to the iron works. A total of 12 mold species including five pathogenic species were indentified from the investigation. Among the five pathogenic species, the causal agents of otomycosis, Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus fumigatus, and A. niger were present. Overall, Cladosporium cladosporioides was the dominant species. This is the first report on the concentration and diversity of airborne mold in houses located adjacent and nonadjacent to Gwangyang bay industrial complex in Korea.

Mold is one of the important bio-aerosols affecting human health in the indoor environment. To manage mold contamination, it is necessary to use an appropriate method for its detection and enumeration. Recently, the impaction method of ISO 16000-18 has been established as one of methods to detect and enumerate molds in air. To investigate the general use of the impaction method for mold detection in domestic indoor environments, the suitability of the method was assessed using different antibiotics, media and air samplers. All of the three antibiotics tested - ampicillin, chloramphenicol and streptomycin - showed inhibitory effects on bacterial colony formation on MEA and DG-18 media, without inhibiting mold growth. Of these three antibiotics, ampicillin was the most effective. There was no statistical difference between MEA and DG-18 media in the measurement of mold concentration. The formation of discriminative colony morphology was more apparent in DG-18 media. No significant difference in the measurement of mold concentration was found between Andersen samplers and MAS- 100NT samplers, which are two major samplers introduced in Korea.