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Note: this service is for Research Use Only and Not intended for clinical use.
Mold is a microorganism that can grow almost anywhere, whether it's warm or cold. For whatever sort of manufacturer, there are mold contamination danger regions. The right mold identification is crucial. Making decisions is made easier and unnecessary concern is reduced.
Alfa Chemistry provides professional mold testing to customers for use in environmental research applications. Samples for mold testing include air and surface samples such as swabs, bulk (material, dust or liquid), tapes and contact plates for live or non-live bacteria analysis.
Sample Collection
In general, the majority of mold testing is sampling the air or surface. In essence, our inspectors test the air or surface to identify the type of mold that is present and/or determine whether the mold is able to grow in the test area.
Air Samples
The most common method is to use a spore trap. A known volume of air is passed via a sticky surface as it goes through the spore catcher sample apparatus to accomplish this. Most airborne particles, including mold spores, will hit this sticky surface and attach to it, adhering to it and becoming trapped.
Surface Samples
Bulk samples: A sampling area is physically removed and sent to the mould testing laboratory.
Swab samples: A swab-like object is rubbed over the area being sampled and sent to the mould testing laboratory.
Tape samples: To pick up and remove a sample of any mold that may be present on the surface, a piece of clear tape is applied to and removed from the sampled area.
There are several methods we can analyze these mold samples once they have arrived at the mold testing laboratory. The most typical procedures involve placing the pertinent portion (or the entire sample) of the submitted mold on a glass microscope slide, applying a stain that the mold spores can absorb, and examining the sample for signs of mold growth.
This includes counting colony forming units (CFUs) and identifying the types or genera of mold. RCS, Andersen, LARO-100, or any other media suited for culture analysis may be used as samples. The report provides a list of recovered molds and their colony forming unit (CFU) concentration, a statistical comparison of potential samples, and information on recovered molds that is currently available.
Non-Viable (Total Spore Count) Analysis
Samples include Air-O-Cell, VersaTrap Cassette, VersaTrap Sampling Cassettes, SKC BioStage, SKC BioCassette, Micro 5, Cyclex D, LARO-100, PCM and other sample cassettes. The analysis involves spore counting and the identification of different classes of mycobacterial spores. It includes spore counts for each class of spores and total spore counts for all spores per cubic metre of air. Spore counts and spore classes are compared for all samples where possible.
Alfa Chemistry's mold testing service is provided by a team of highly trained microbiologists. Please contact us if you have any questions about the services offered.