Opportunistic mold fungi in urban air environment (analytical review)

Abstract

The review presents data about microscopic mold fungi that contaminating the air environment of various buildings and structures in cities. Information about the conditions of origin of mycosis and mycetogenic allergies in urban residents in modern conditions is given on. A synthesis of data on patterns of distribution and accumulation of opportunistic mold fungi in urban premises is presented. It was noted that the majority of the most detailed studies, taking into account the number and species composition of microscopic fungi, were carried out in Europe, the USA and Russia. It is indicated that the accumulation of opportunistic fungi in the external environment increases the risk of their entry into the premises. It has been revealed that in the air of premises even on different continents, similar groups of fungi are usually dominant: namely, species of the genuses Aspergillus, Alternaria, Cladosporium, Penicillium. It is noted that mycetogenic air contamina -tion in the urban environment is a serious medical and social problem for many countries of the world. Attention to the absence of clear criteria for the safe level of conditionally pathogenic fungi in human habitat in world practice is drawn. The issue of the maximum permissible concentration of spores of mold fungi in the air of residential premises is still open. Despite many years of research on the problem, to present day there are no official uniform regulations or standards for the permissible content of mold fungi in the air environment of the premises, and there are no regulatory and methodological documents governing the environmental and hygienic examination of fungal damage to residential premises. Such a situation requires a review and updating of the information and methodological base, since the control of mycetogenic contamination of residential premises is one of the means of ensuring the biological safety of the human habitat.