Air Quality Testing & Spore Trap Reports: Interpreting Clearance Lab Results

1. The Physics of Air-O-Cell Spore Trap Sampling

Spore trap sampling utilizes calibrated high-volume vacuum pumps pulling 15 liters of air per minute (LPM) through impactor cassettes across a 5 to 10 minute duration (yielding 75 to 150 liters total volume). Airborne particulates impact an optically clear glass slide coated with a proprietary sticky medium, capturing intact conidia for direct optical microscopy at 400x to 1000x magnification.

2. How to Read a Clearance Lab Report (PRV Criteria)

An indoor air clearance certificate requires meeting three strict mathematical criteria:

• 1. Quantitative Ratio Rule: Total indoor airborne fungal concentrations ($\text{spores}/\text{m}^3$) must be lower than or equal to outdoor baseline control air sampled simultaneously.
• 2. Qualitative Ecology Rule: Fungal genus distributions indoors must mirror the outdoor ambient ecology (e.g., outdoor air dominated by Cladosporium should not correspond to indoor air dominated by Aspergillus/Penicillium).
• 3. Zero Water-Marker Fungi: Zero raw counts of toxigenic indicator species (such as Stachybotrys chartarum, Chaetomium, or Memnoniella) are permitted in a cleared containment chamber.