Mold & Bacteria Consulting Laboratories (MBL) is a leading commercial Canadian air quality testing laboratory in North America. Serving mainly the Canadian market, MBL specializes in lab analysis of air and surface samples for fungi (yeasts and mold) and bacteria. MBL is accredited by the Canadian Association for Laboratory Accreditation (CALA). Routine tests at MBL include: Bacteria testing: All environmental bacteria including coliforms testing, E. coli testing and Legionella … [Read more...]
Sampling For Airborne Fungal Spores
February 20, 2011 By
Reasons for Conducting Air Sampling For Fungal Spores Sampling for airborne fungal spores may be conducted for a number of reasons including assessing the air quality, detection of pathogenic organisms, epidemiological surveys and predictions, detection of mycotoxin producing fungi, or detection and measurement of exposure to allergenic fungi and actinomycetes. Before sampling for airborne fungal spores it’s important to have a clear objective and the data that would meet that objective. Some … [Read more...]
Mold Test Kits In Canada
February 14, 2010 By
Mold test kits are meant to help a homeowner or property manager to perform preliminary tests for mold. Mold test kits are not meant to replace professional advice. There are many test kits out there. While some are worth paying for a majority of the so called "Mold Test Kits" are useless. For example, settle agar plates are frequently sold to homeowners as "mold test kits". While these may give useful information when used by a professional their results can be very misleading. The mold … [Read more...]
Air Sampling For Total Fungal Spore Counts
July 25, 2008 By
We have compiled a short flash video demo on how to sample air for airborne fungal total spore counts. To see the video, please click Air Sampling For Total Fungal Spore Counts. After seeing the video, please be kind enough to suggest how we could improve the video. … [Read more...]
Is Air Sampling For Mold Necessary?
November 10, 2007 By
Is air sampling of mold necessary? Any type of mold sampling whether air or surface sampling should be based on a well defined objective. For example, if the objective is to determine whether occupants were exposed to airborne mold spores, then air sampling would be recommended. Air sampling may also help to detect hidden mold growth. Before sampling for mold, it is important to have a well defined objective. … [Read more...]
Mould Exposure
August 4, 2007 By
The best strategy to determine if building occupants are exposed to hazardous mould is to take air samples. It is important to note that even in rooms with visible mould growth air sampling may give very low spore counts. Two methods are widely used in sampling air for mould. Impacting air on some growth media. This method is used when one is interested in determining the concentration of viable mould spores/fragments in the air. Impacting air on some inert sticky surface. In this case the … [Read more...]
Non-viable Fungal Air Sampling Alone May Not Be Adequate
June 24, 2007 By
Non-viable Air Sampling Indoor air sampling for airborne fungi is frequently conducted to assess the levels of fungal contamination and subsequently the potential risk to building occupants. It is also used to determine if there was hidden mould growth in the building or to determine the effectiveness of remediation procedures. One of the most cited advantages of non-viable air sampling is that detection of fungal structures (spores, hyphal fragments, etc) is not … [Read more...]
Indoor Air Testing For Mould
October 17, 2006 By
There are a number of methods that can be used to test air for airborne mould spores and fragments. The method chosen would depend on the objective of the investigation and subsequently the type of data required. The following methods can be used for testing air for airborne mould contamination. Settle Plate Method For Detecting Viable Airborne Mould Spores And Fragments With this method, a set of plates containing suitable growth media is exposed at table‑top level for half-hour to 4 … [Read more...]