Electrostatic Dust Cloth: A Useful Passive Sampling Method When Assessing Exposure to Fungi Demonstrated in Studies Developed in Portugal (2018–2021)

Abstract

Electrostatic dust cloths (EDC) have been widely used for microbiologic contamination assessment in different indoor and occupational environments. This paper reviews sixteen studies performed in Portugal between 2018 and 2021 for evaluating the exposure to microbiological agents and focusing on fungi using EDC as a passive sampling method. The findings suggest that EDC can be applied as a screening method for particulate matter-exposure assessment and as a complementary method to characterize microbial exposures in occupational environments. Overall, EDC should be included, side by side with other sampling methods, in sampling campaigns focused on exposure assessments due to the advantages such as the straightforward extraction protocol favoring the employment of different assays, which allows us to assess exposure to a wide range of microbial agents, and presents higher accuracy regarding the fungal diversity.