Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

COVID-19 Desertion – Investigating Mold Potentials before Office Re-Entry

Kennedy A. Osakwe, Folusho E. Alamina

Asian Journal of Advanced Research and Reports · pp. 1–8 · Published 29 Jul 2021

10.9734/ajarr/2021/v15i530393

Abstract

Background: While workers and organisations heeded lockdown enforcements and abandoned offices in response to COVID-19 pandemic, the potential for mold growth thrived in unoccupied offices. An investigative enquiry to assess the potential and risk of exposure to mold is a sine-qua-non to safe re-entry to offices. Materials and Method: An analytical study conducted through walk through survey involving visual inspection, measurement of physico-chemical parameters (Temperature, Relative Humidity, Air Velocity and Particulate Matters PM2.5); collection and analysis of suspected swab and bulk samples. Results: Results showed copious amount of moisture evidenced by an averagely high relative humidity of 94%, low ambient temperature of 16% and poor ventilation evinced by an air velocity of 0.4 metre per second. Analysis of samples Mucor species revealed (Mucor mucedo, Mucor himalis, Mucor racemosus); Aspergillus species (Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus terrus); Cladosporium species (Cladosporium cladosproides and Cladosporium sphaerosperum). Conclusion: Poor ventilation, deposits of debris, increased moisture and dysfunctional ventilation system as found in abandoned offices for Mold growth. Post lockdown re-entry to offices should be preceded by Mold risk assessment among other measures to rule out the presence of Mold growth. Preparations for re-entry should include deep cleaning with anti Mold agents, optimization of ventilation system using anti Mold and High Efficiency Particulate Absorbing (HEPA) filters, dehumidifiers and safe remediation of suspected mold growth using suitable personal protective equipment.

Mold re-entry relative humidity ventilation

References (18)

  1. 1 Damp Indoor Spaces and Health [DOI]
  2. 2 Health Effects of Mycotoxins in Indoor Air: A Critical Review [DOI]
  3. 3 International Energy Agency—IEA [DOI]
  4. 4 Adverse Health Effects of Indoor Molds [DOI]
  5. 5 Penicillium expansum (Blue Mold) [DOI]
  6. 6 Characteristics and taxonomy of Cladosporium fungi
  7. 7 A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture and Your Home
  8. 8 Current challenges for shaping the sustainable and mold-free hygienic indoor environment in humid regions [DOI]
  9. 9 Conditions for mould growth on typical interior surfaces [DOI]
  10. 10 Cladosporium as the Main Fungal Contaminant of Locations in Dwelling Environments. [DOI]
  11. 11 Characteristics and Applications of Molds [DOI]
  12. 12 Monitoring for Health Hazards at Work [DOI]
  13. 13 Microbial quality evaluation of grated cheese samples collected at retail level in Calabria (Italy) [DOI]
  14. 14 Contactless Academia – The Case for Automated Essay Scoring (AES) System in COVID 19 Pandemic [DOI]
  15. 15 Three-month Epidemiological Trend of Covid-19 in Nigeria – Rapid Review [DOI]
  16. 16 Epidemiological features of the mycotoxicoses.
  17. 17 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [DOI]
  18. 18 Current Journal of Applied Science and Technology [DOI]

Cited by 1

1 citation reported by external sources — individual citing-article records aren't available to list yet.

Related research

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

62

Page views

0

PDF downloads

25

Outbound clicks

1

Citations

Views over time

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.