Exposure to the airborne mould botrytis and its health effects

Most investigations into the correlation between exposure to fungi and detrimentalhealth effects focus on the 2-4 most prevalent genera in ambient air, both outdoorsand indoors. Yet over 80 genera of fungi have been shown to have allergenic potential.Also, there is no agreement about threshold values for exposure to fungi. One of thefungal genera expected to be less prevalent in ambient air and known to cause allergyis Botrytis. In this review, we investigate the airborne exposure level and health effectof Botrytis, both at general exposure and in occupational settings. The surveyed papersshow that Botrytis is found globally with different spore seasons depending on the regioninvestigated. The levels of Botrytis in the percentage of all fungi have a calculated medianof around 1.1% in the different environments, confirming that it is among the lessprevalent fungi. Furthermore, a substantial proportion of patients and workers are allergicto Botrytis cinerea, and when B. cinerea was included in extended test panels additionalallergic patients were found. Thus, B. cinerea is as important as the more prevalent mouldgenera Cladosporium and Alternaria and we suggest that it should be included in standardallergic tests panels.