EVALUATION OF 3 PORTABLE SAMPLERS FOR MONITORING AIRBORNE FUNGI

Airborne fungi were monitored at five sample sites with the Burkard po rtable, the RCS Plus, and the SAS Super 90 air samplers; the Andersen 2-stage impactor was used for comparison. All samplers were calibrated before being used simultaneously to collect 100-liter samples at each site. The Andersen and Burkard samplers retrieved equivalent volumes of airborne fungi; the SAS Super 90 and RCS Plus measurements did not differ from each other hut were significantly lower than those obtaine d with the Andersen or Burkard samplers. Total fungal counts correlate d linearly with Cladosporium and Penicillium counts. Alternaria specie s, although present at all sites, did not correlate with total count o r with amounts of any other fungal genera. Sampler and location signif icantly influenced fungal counts, but no interactions between samplers and locations were found.