Category: Knowledge Base

Bioaerosols

What is a bioaerosol? Bioaerosols are airborne particles, solid or liquid. They can be large molecules or volatile compounds. They contain living organisms. They will vary in size from a fraction of a micron to around 100 microns. As with inert “dust” particles, all bioaerosols are governed by the laws of gravity and will be affected by air movements being transported by turbulence and diffusion. Air will often contain micro-organisms such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi. None of these actually live in the air, the atmosphere tends to kill off most of them. However, they are frequently transported attached to Read More …

Why Choose High Flow Microbial Air Samplers

This article can be downloaded as a PDF document. Introduction Most microbial air samplers sample at 100 litres per minute, taking 10 minutes to sample 1m3 of air. Ten minutes can be a long time waiting on site for something to complete; made even worse if multiple samples are needed with different media and in several zones within an area. This time represents a cost to your business, added downtime to production or disruption to your customers. The use of high flow rate samplers may appear obvious in this case – shorter time to take samples. But, is this correct Read More …

Sequential Sampling on MicroBio MB2 Samplers

Sequential sampling enables a programmable volume of air to be sampled over an extended period of time. Monitoring for short periods could risk missing potential hazards that may occur during the day. The MicroBio MB2 can now be set up and left to work autonomously sequential sampling up to 10,000 litres over a 24 hour period.

Importance of impaction velocity for sampling viable organisms

We are often asked ‘how can MicroBio samplers be that good at sampling compared to others costing more than twice as much?’ The simple answer: the impaction velocity of organisms is kept low enough, between 9.8 and 11 metres per second for MicroBio sampling heads, so their viability is not compromised when impacting upon sample plates, but not too slow as to flow through the air stream and miss the plate altogether! Our sampler design concentrates on viable bioaerosol collection rather than the aesthetics of the product.  What’s important is capturing a viable sample, rather than just looking the part. Research has shown (Stewart et al, Appl Environ Microbiol. Read More …

Online count correction feature

image use licensed from iStockPhoto

Our website includes a free to use online count correction feature. This will enable MicroBio air sampler users to quickly calculate airborne CFU concentrations and positive hole count correction on visible colony growths in a petri dish or contact plate following microbial air sampling. It is suitable for correcting counts obtained from samples taken using the MicroBio MB1, MB2, MB2-RSH and MB2-HiFlow bioaerosol samplers with any sampling head option.  Once a sample has been taken, the contact plate or petri dish should be removed immediately from the MicroBio, the lid replaced on the plate and sealed. A note should be made on the lid regarding time, location Read More …