La eficacia medida por un laboratorio independiente segn los mtodos descritos por la AFNOR -NF T 72281- es superior a 99,999%,

AFNOR NF T72-281 Revision / Edition: 09 Chg: Date: 05/00/09 Procds de Dsinfection des Surfaces par voie Ariene Dtermination de l'activit Bactricide, Fongicide, Levorucide e Sporicide
5 Log reduction

fungicide logarithmic reduction

In all cases we obtained a 5 log reduction in total agreement with the French standard AFNOR AFNOR NF T72-281 - Procds de Dsinfection des Surfaces par voie Ariene Dtermination de l'activit Bactricide, Fongicide, Levorucide e Sporicide applicable to disinfect food processing rooms

in all cases we obtained a 5 log reduction in total agreement with the French standard AFNOR applicable to disinfect food processing rooms
In all cases we obtained a 5 log reduction in total agreement with the French standard AFNOR AFNOR NF T72-281 - Procds de Dsinfection des Surfaces par voie Ariene Dtermination de l'activit Bactricide, Fongicide, Levorucide e Sporicide applicable to disinfect food processing rooms

Indoor samples were taken in the middle of the living-room and the principal bedroom in every house under study. The doors and windows were closed, and samples were taken at a height of about 1.5 m above ground level (Al-Doory and Domson, 1984). Sampling was carried out every 15 days throughout the three months of winter and the three months of summer. Duplicate samples were taken with a Standard RCS centrifugal air sampler (Biotest Diagnostics Corp., Denville, NJ,

USA), which operates on the principle of impact onto agar media strip by centrifugal force. Strips were filled with malt extract agar (MEA) (Reponen et al., 1994; Su et al., 2001;Wu et al., 2000a) containing chloramphenicol (100 mg l_1) to inhibit bacterial growth. The air-sampling volume corresponds to 40 l, and the sampler was swabbed with isopropyl alcohol before every sampling. 2.3. Isolation and identification of fungal flora After the sampling, the strips were incubated at 25 _C for 5 days (Verhoeff et al., 1990). The fungal concentrations were calculated as colonyforming units per cubic meter of air (CFUm_3). Cultures were purified as follows, to ensure that they were free from any contamination and ready for identification: small samples of the isolates were picked with a dissection needle under a stereomicroscope and placed on individual fresh plates (MEA) as point inoculums and incubated as described above. This procedure was repeated until purity (uniformity in appearance of the colony) was obtained (Pitt and Hocking, 1997). Mould isolation and culture were carried out with appropriate media in order to identify the genera/species by their macroscopic and microscopic characteristics (Carmichel et al., 1980; Domsch et al., 1980; Nelson et al., 1983; Samson et al., 1995; Pitt and Hocking, 1997). The media used were the following: Czapek yeast extract agar (CYA), which allows general mould identification; potato dextrose agar (PDA), to observe Fusarium macroscopic characteristics; and carnation leaf agar (CLA), to induce the production

of macroconidias, which permits species identification. Czapek yeast extract agar with 20% sucrose (CY20S) was used for Aspergillus identification, glycerol (25%)nitrate agar (G25 N) for Penicillium, and Synthetischer Nahrstoffarmer agar (SNA) for fungi of difficult sporulation such as Epicoccum nigrum (Nelson et al., 1983; Samson et al., 1995; Pitt and Hocking, 1997). 2.4. Statistical analysis of results 2.4.1. Factor analysis of correlations (FAC) Original fungal concentrations (in CFUm _3) were transformed by decimal logarithm to approximate normality in the analysis. FAC was used to group 10 different fungal genera into different factors on the basis of loading directions for each variable within each factor (Sierra Bravo, 1994; Hair et al., 1999). The Varimax Rotation of the FAC included in the Statgraphic_ statistical package (1999) was used. Factor scores were calculated from the resulting factor structure. These factor scores were used in a MannWhitney test to associate them with environmental conditions: season (summer/winter), area (urban/suburban), and convection gasfired heating system during winter (presence/absence). 2.4.2. Cluster analysis The genera under study were subjected to hierarchical clustering, using the Euclidean quadratic distance as a similarity measure and Wards method as an agglomeration method (Hair et al., 1999). 3. Results Results represent the average of fortnightly data and sampled places (living rooms and bedrooms).

The genera and species most abundant in the city were Cladosporium (C. cladosporioides, C. herbarum, C. macrocarpum, and C. sphaerospermum) 58.9% and Alternaria (A. alternata) 8.7%, followed by Epicoccum (E. nigrum) 5.7%, Fusarium (F. graminearum, F. culmorum, F. verticillioides, F. proliferatum, F. oxysporum) 5.4%, Curvularia (C. lunata) 3.5%. Acremonium (A. strictum, A. charticola) 1.3%, Drechslera 1.3%, Penicillium 1.3%, and Aspergillus (A. niger, A. flavus, A. versicolor, A. restrictus, A. ochraceus, A. ustus, and A. terreus) 1.1%, which, together with yeasts 3.7%, represent 90.9% of total mycobiota. Table 1 shows the relative abundance under distribution corresponding to the different environmental conditions: winter/ summer, urban/suburban, and presence/absence of convection gasfired heating system during winter for the 10 principal indoor airborne fungi. Table 2 presents the correlation matrix obtained from the standardized log transformations of counts for different genera. Ten statistically significant correlations (P <0.05), which present coefficients above 0.3000, were obtained; six of them were significant at a P <0.001 level, with coefficients higher than 0.5000, as in the case of the pairs: AlternariaCurvularia, Alternaria Fusarium, AlternariaEpicoccum, and CurvulariaFusarium. However, Acremonium and Penicillium showed no correlation with the remaining genera.

2.2. Isolation of moulds Swabs were streaked onto DG18 agar plates. Thirty milliliters of milk and brine were centrifuged at 666 RCF for 1 min and 2_0.1 ml were pipetted from the bottom of the tube and plated on two DG18 plates. The agar plates were incubated in darkness for 7 days at 25 jC and the colonies were inspected and counted. Representatives for each of the different colonies were subcultured and identified as previously described (Kure et al., 2001). 2.3. Data processing and statistical analyses The statistical analyses were performed with SASPC SystemR Version 6.12 for Windows (SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA, 1996) and were performed separately for Penicillium brevicompactum, P. commune, P. palitans, P. roqueforti ss. roqueforti and P. solitum. Isolation of each of the mould species from a sample was treated as the dichotomous outcome (YES/NO) in the logistic regression analyses using PROC GENMOD. The independent variables tested