Pros and Cons of Mold Air Samples
When a home has been affected by mold, air sampling can be an effective way to detect its presence if other testing methods and visual inspection haven\’t revealed it. If there are many spores found, then more extensive building inspection may be required. To better check if their is mold in the air you should buy our Mold test kits online and have them shipped to you.
What Are The Pros and Cons of Mold Air Samples?
Spores are an integral part of mold detection, yet these samples may not always be reliable or conclusive. That\’s why it\’s essential to choose a testing method which provides accurate and dependable results.
When it comes to mold air testing, there are a few options.
Non-viable (spore trap) sampling: This is the industry standard for residential testing and requires no culturing to collect samples. Samples are usually collected via swabs or tape strips and sent off to a lab for analysis.
A viable air sampler can be disposable or one-time use, running air through an impaction device to impact spores onto a microscope slide or petri dish. Under a microscope, these mold spores are then observed for species identification and source identification.
Viable samples are more likely to yield a positive result than non-viable tests since they collect spores directly from their source. However, since they are open to the air, they may pick up other contaminants and not be as sensitive to them as non-viable samplers are.
The disadvantage to using a viable air test is that samples must be taken close to where mold spores were originally growing in order to get an accurate result. Unfortunately, this can be challenging since surfaces in your home may differ and contain different amounts of spores at different times.
Another drawback of a mold air test is that it does not provide an extensive historical overview of how much mold contamination has affected an area. That\’s because individual spores from mold colonies don\’t just contain DNA and mycotoxins; they may carry DNA and other contaminants as well.
It\’s also essential to note that most of these spores aren\’t particularly airborne and won\’t spread through a wet, moldy object unless disturbed. For instance, Stachybotrys chartarum spores have a hard time becoming airborne, and will only show up on mold air samples when disturbed.
MVOC testing, on the other hand, is a more precise form of air sampling that can detect only certain microbial volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These VOCs are released when mold spores feed off food sources like cardboard boxes or drywall and then analyzed in a laboratory to determine if they indicate an issue with mold growth.
Check out our air mold test kits to test air for mold and buy online today!
