文獻報告指出，因室內環境潮濕而導致黴菌生長之情況將使得居住在其間的居民出現眼睛、呼吸道的不適或者頭痛、咳嗽、皮膚癢等症狀。在台灣本土的調查結果顯示，台灣室內空氣的真菌濃度遠比美國、荷蘭等國的濃度為高，且有半數以上之家戶其室內與室外空氣濃度之比值大於一；此結果顯示室內空氣中真菌濃度的來源除了室外的貢獻外，極有可能存在其他室內污染源。
此研究之目的為調查裝修建材上的黴菌種類，並瞭解裝修建材上生長之黴菌與室內空氣中黴菌濃度的關係，同時希望能建立一個簡易的評估居家黴菌生長程度的方法，使其既能兼具問卷之便利性，又能較正確地反映空氣中黴菌濃度之高低實況，同時作為民眾評估是否應積極改善，或修復黴菌生長區域之裝修狀況的依據。
本次研究對象為居家環境中疑似有黴菌生長之家戶，所採集之黴菌樣本包括室內、室外空氣樣本及由裝修建材表面括取得來之表面樣本，以無母數統計方法分析比較建材樣本中所生長之黴菌菌落與空氣樣本中之黴菌濃度是否存在相關性。將依據三項評分標準：菌落數、菌落面積、建材濕度評估後所得的分數與空氣中黴菌濃度進行回歸分析。
家戶之裝修建材中檢測出黴菌生長之部位為天花板及牆面，檢測出的菌種包括Aspergillus、Alternaria、Cladosporium、Fusarium、Paecilomyces、Penicillium、Non-sporulating等，出現頻率最高之菌屬是Cladosporium其次是Non-sporulating，至於需水性較高之黴菌種類只有A. fumigatus、A. versicolor生長，約有9﹪的樣本有這些黴菌生長。
依照裝修建材上生長的黴菌種類，將所收集的樣本分成裝修建材上有、無黴菌生長兩組，經比較空氣中該種黴菌在兩組家戶間的濃度差異發現，Penicillium、Non-sporulating兩種黴菌的濃度差異具統計上顯著意義。當控制了居家特性之可能影響後，裝修建材上有Penicillium生長者其室內空氣中Penicillium的濃度仍然比裝修建材上無Penicillium生長者高。
將依據三項評分參數評估後之總分與室內空氣中黴菌濃度進行回歸分析，結果顯示與評估分數有關的黴菌種類是A. versicolor（R2＝0.06，P＜0.0001），而其他P-value接近0.05的黴菌種類有Aspergillus、Penicillium、Non-sporulating等菌，其分別為在居家環境空氣中出現頻率前2、3、5之黴菌種類，但其相關性並不高（R2＝0.06）。
文獻中裝修建材上生長之黴菌種類與本研究由裝修建材表面收集而得的黴菌種類並不相同，台灣空氣之濕度比溫帶氣候區之國家高，然而裝修建材上生長的黴菌種類多屬於需水性較低的菌屬，因此裝修建材上的濕度似乎極可能是影響裝修建材上黴菌生長種類之主因。當控制了室外黴菌濃度及居家特性後，裝修建材上生長的Penicillium與室內空氣中Penicillium的濃度呈正相關，裝修建材上生長的Penicillium確實與空氣中Penicillium的濃度有關。本研究所建立之評估方法能應用於評估室內空氣中A. versicolor的濃度，而此菌種為潮濕指標性黴菌，當室內有此菌生長時，代表有室內污染源及有潮濕問題存在，由於本研究建立的評分系統僅適合評估A. versicolor的濃度，因此尚未能充分評估室內空氣中黴菌濃度的高低。

Several epidemiologic studies have reported positive associations between dampness related fungal exposure and respiratory morbidity of the occupants. Buildings with poor indoor air quality are often attributable to the surface of building materials with fungal contamination. However, the corresponding database has been limited in Taiwan, and information regarding the prevalent genera remains relatively unknown.
The objectives of this study were to identify the fungal species in building materials. To estimate if the growth conditions were related to indoor air quality, and set up a score system in order to provide people a reference if they should remove the fungi-contaminated materials.
The samplings took place in houses with obvious mold growth. Duplicate samples of airborne fungi were collected using a Burkard sampler, with malt extract agar plates. Surface samples were taken for direct plating from vertical wall and ceiling tile. Nonparametric Wilcoxon rank sum test was used to examine the relationship between air samples and surface samples in different houses. To estimate the level of fungal contamination, we set up a score system and the parameters include fungi unit, the growth area, and the moisture content of the material.
In our study, ceiling tile and even the drywall are two common sources of fungal growth, and the majority of contaminated building materials contain cellulose. The identified microbial genera include Alternaria, Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Drechslera, Microsporum, Non-sporulating, Paecilomyces, Penicillium, and Yeast.
The study collected indoor and outdoor air samples, and to compare the indoor fungal concentrations between the contaminated rooms and clean areas. When we controlled for residential characteristic and fungi concentration in outdoor air, we observed a significant difference in airborne Penicillium concentrations indoor for homes with and without surface growth of Penicillium (p-value=0.009). The score system was positively correlated with the concentrations of A. versicolor (R2=0.57, P＜0.0001) , but not other fungi.
This study first identifies the microbial genera present on the building materials of subtropical climate. In addition, the results demonstrate the likely associations between surface area of microbial growth and the corresponding concentrations of airborne microbes. Finally, this research explores the possibility of estimating level of microbial exposures using quantitative measurements of surface contamination. With all the above, the study has established its unique contributions to the field of exposure assessment and environmental health.

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