Assessment of the Indoor Air Quality of Majors Biological Laboratories in Ofrima Complex, University of Port-Harcourt, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to assess the genera of airborne micro-organisms present in the indoor environment of Microbiology and Animal/Environmental Biology Majors’ laboratories in University of Port Harcourt; which could cause infection to laboratory users and contamination of culture. Indoor air was assessed (at 9 am, 12 pm and 4 pm) for five days and the basic parameters in this study were number of individuals present at each exposure time, time of sampling and duration. The settling plate technique was employed as sample collection method. The total heterotrophic bacterial and total fungal count from Microbiology Majors’ laboratory was 987 CFU/m2/h (Colony Forming Unit per square meters per hour) (80.18%) and 244 SFU/m2/h (Spore Forming Unit per square meters per hour) (19.82%) respectively while the total heterotrophic bacterial and total fungal count from Animal/Environmental Biology Majors’ laboratory was 677 CFU/m2/h (79.27%) and 177 SFU/m2/h (20.73%) respectively, reported as contamination flow. In the examined area, the predominant culturable species of air borne microflora were members of bacteria genera; Bacillus, Staphylococcus, Escherichia, Micrococcus, Pseudomonas, Serratia, Acinetobacter and fungi; Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Fusarium, Penicillium, Rhodotorula, Trichophyton, Candida, Mucor, Rhizopus, Scopulariopsis and Trichoderma. Despite the high number counted plates in both laboratories, the data proves to be statistically insignificant at P=0.05 for 9 am and 4 pm while significant at 12 noon for laboratories 1 and 2. Both laboratories are were undergraduate science students of the University of Port Harcourt in the faculty of biological sciences carry out their ressearch and study.