Slit Cassette Performance for Personal Sampling of Mold Spores at Low Flow Rates

Personal sampling of small mold spores using slit cassettes

“…These are key considerations that affect development of public health standards, evaluations of personal exposures, and studies of airborne mold spores' relationship to fungal diseases. 1,2 In recent studies, 3,4 slit cassettes were used at low flow rates to assess the applicability of the method for personal sampling of mold spore exposures. There is a popular assumption that smaller mold spores such as Penicillium/Aspergillus (Pen/Asp) are not effectively captured at flow rates <15 L/min (lpm).…”

“…Lower flows did not result in underrepresentative sampling by slit cassettes in terms of either the amount of total spores per cubic meter of air or the amount of small spores such as Pen/Asp, Ganoderma, and other small basidiospores. 4 Simple impactors for air sampling of molds such as slit cassettes and spore traps appear to have broad cutoff points that include most common environmental mold spores. Thus, slit cassettes may be used at low flow rates of approximately 5 lpm without systematic bias for evaluating personal exposures 3 and for studies of fungal-related disease.…”