Environmental Expert On Indoor Air Quality Part 2

But how does this process occur in the first place? When carpets, dust, wall board, wallpaper, insulation, or other organic products become wet or saturated with water, they become breeding grounds for spores or growth parts (hyphae). The original materials for colony formation are in the air we breath, just in smaller concentrations (we call these Colony Forming Units or CFUs). Because fungi reproduce so rapidly (even after a period of dormancy), the concentrations of spores in ducts or walls or carpets escalate accordingly, thereby increasing the concentrations of fungal reproductive materials in the air we breath.

As microorganisms compete for food and space, they have developed several forms of defense that prevent or retard other microorganisms from growing on the same food source. Human engineering has taken advantage of this condition.