Microbiological quality of outdoor air in some settings of Elbasan city

Abstract

The study of infectious agents of air has recently become a serious problem from the point of view of health impact. One kind of air pollutant is airborne microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. They are factors of potential infectious to human beings. The quality of bio-aerosols differs with the atmospheric conditions such as pH, UV radiation, temperature and relative humidity and cultural behavior of people. Environmental factors modify the effects of bio-aerosols by limiting the time where aerosolized microorganisms remain viable. The aim of this study is to value the microbiological quality of outdoor air in some significant settings of Elbasan city in central Albania during the summer 2014. Air samples are taken three times a day: in the morning, midday and in the afternoon. To identify the presence of such air contamination agents is used the sedimentation method in which bacteria and fungi are collected and grown on standard culture media respectively MPA nutrient agar (bacteria) and Czapek-Dox Agar (fungi).The quantitative and qualitative examinations of 150 air samples are done in microbiological laboratory of the University of Elbasan.Thelevel of microbial air contamination is considered high, compared with existing suggestions for microbiological standards and UE demands. The number of microorganisms (colonies) ranged within 19-700 for bacteria, and 16-800 in the case of fungi. The factors that influence this high level of contamination are environmental factors, anthropogenic sources and deposition of biological materials.