MICRO-ORGANISMS IN THE AIR OF COTTON MILLS

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Periodic air samples were taken in a new cotton mill in north-east England to study the occurrence of airborne bacteria, actinomycetes and fungi and compared with samples taken in a Lancashire mill. Maximum concentrations, estimated microscopically from cascade impactor slides, were 1.2×10 6 ‘actinomycetes+bacteria’ and 0.4×10 6 fungus spores m −3 air in the new mill and 9.8×10 6 ‘actinomycetes+bacteria’ and 1.2×10 6 fungus spores m −3 air in the Lancashire mill. A wide range of colony types was isolated using Andersen samplers. Bacteria were distributed throughout the new mill with little variation in concentration and surprisingly large numbers in the weaving sheds. The predominant types were Gram-negative yellow rods, mainly Enterobacter agglomerans and Bacillus spp., but Enterobacter cloacae, Flavobacterium spp., Acinetobacter calcoacericus, Alcaligenes spp., Pseudomonas spp. and cocci were also isolated. The predominant fungi were Cladosporium spp., Penicillium spp., the Asperqillus glaucus group and Aspergillus niger . These were usually most numerous during the early stages of processing and were few after carding. Actinomycetes were frequently isolated in small numbers. The species implicated in farmers' lung, Faenia rectivirgula ( Micropolyspora faeni ) and Thermoactinomyces spp. occurred in a quarter of the air samples and were especially numerous in the Lancashire mill. Most of the organisms isolated from air could be found in cotton samples collected at the same time.