Abstract
The high relative humidity of the air and many potential growth media, such as bedding materials, hay and grains in the horse stable, for example, provide suitable conditions for fungal growth. Metabolic activity of four common agricultural fungi incubated in peat and wood shavings at 25°C and 4°C was characterized in this study using previously specified volatile metabolites of micro-organisms and CO2 production as indicators. The volatile organic compounds were collected into Tenax resin and analysed by gas chromatography. Several microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOCs), e.g. 1-butanol, 2-hexanone, 2-heptanone, 3-octanone, 1-octen-3-ol and 1-octanol were detected in laboratory experiments; however, these accounted for only 0.08-1.5% of total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs). Emission rates of MVOCs were 0,001-0.176 μg/kg of bedding materials per hour. Despite some limitations of the analytical method, certain individual MVOCs, 2-hexanone, 2-heptanone and 3-octanone, were also detected in concentrations of less than 4.6 μg/m3 (0.07-0.31% of TVOC) in a horse stable where peat and shavings were used as bedding materials. MVOC emission rate was estimated to be 0.2-2.0 μg/kg x h-1 from bedding materials in the stable, being about ten times higher than the rates found in the laboratory experiments. Some compounds, e.g. 3-octanone and 1-octen-3-ol, can be assumed to originate mainly from microbial metabolisms.
Highlights
Many reports on levels of volatile organic compounds in houses and offices have recently been published
The production of microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOCs) and total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) in two bedding materials in laboratory experiments and determined MVOC and TVOC emissions in a horse stable
The potential MVOCs detected in the laboratory experiments are presented in Tables 1 and 2
Summary
Many reports on levels of volatile organic compounds in houses and offices have recently been published. Concentrations of total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) have ranged from 20 to. 1900 pg/m 3 in houses and from 160 to 15 300 pg/m 3 in office buildings (Miller et al 1988, Norbäck et al 1993, Daisey et al 1994, Ekberg 1994, Kostiainen 1995, Batterman and Peng 1995). TVOC levels were 5-50 fold higher in “sick houses” than in normal houses (Kostiainen 1995),and significantly higher (67-8300 |ig/ m 3) in the dwellings of asthmatics than in those of subjects without such symptoms (Norbäck et al 1993). Toxic effects may appear when the TVOC concentration exceeds 25 mg/m3
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