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Angelina Gandara,¹ Linda C. Mota,¹ Carissa Flores,¹ Hernando R. Perez,² Christopher F. Green,³ and Shawn G. Gibbs¹

¹The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, El Paso, Texas, USA; ²Drexel University, School of Public Health, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; ³Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Abstract
Objective: In this study we evaluated the levels of Staphylococcus aureus and antibiotic-resistant S. aureus in colony-forming units (CFU) per cubic meter of air.

Design: We used Andersen two-stage samplers to collect bioaerosol samples from 24 houses in El Paso, Texas, using tryptic soy agar as the collection media, followed by the replicate plate method on Chapman Stone selective medium to isolate S. aureus. The Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method was used to determine antibiotic resistance to ampicillin, penicillin, and cefaclor, which represent two distinct classes of antibiotics.

Results: The average recovered concentration of respirable heterotrophic organisms found outside each home was 345.38 CFU/m³, with an average of 12.63 CFU/m³for S. aureus. The average recovered concentration of respirable heterotrophic organisms found inside each home was 460.23 CFU/m³, withan average of 15.39 CFU/m³ for S. aureus. The respirable S. aureus recovered from inside each home had an average resistance of 54.59% to ampicillin and 60.46%. to penicillin. Presence of cefaclor-resistant and of multidrug-resistant S. aureus was the same, averaging 13.20% per house. The respirable S. aureus recovered from outside each home had an average resistance of 34.42% to ampicillin and 41.81% to penicillin. Presence of cefaclor-resistant and of multidrug-resistant S. aureus was the same, averaging 13.96% per house.

Conclusions: This study indicates that antibiotic-resistant bioaerosols are commonly found within residential homes. Our results also suggest that resistant strains of airborne culturable S. aureus are present in higher concentrations inside the study homes than outside the homes.

Key words: antibiotic resistant, bioaerosols, residential indoor air, Staphylococcus aureus. Environ Health Perspect 114:1859–1864 (2006) . doi:10.1289/ehp.9585 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 7 September 2006]

Address correspondence to S.G. Gibbs, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, 1100 N. Stanton, Suite 110, El Paso, TX 79902 USA. Telephone: (915) 747-8582. Fax: (915) 747-8512. E-mail: shawn.g.gibbs@uth.tmc.edu

This research was partially funded by Hot Projects, an initiative of the Paso del Norte Health Foundation and the Center for Environmental Resource Management Environmental Protection Agency Student Support at The University of Texas at El Paso. Editorial support was provided by S. Navarro and the Hispanic Health Disparities Research Center (P20 MD000548-01, National Institutes of Health/National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities) .

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 7 August 2006 ; accepted 7 September 2006.