Average rating: | Rated 5 of 5. |
Level of importance: | Rated 5 of 5. |
Level of validity: | Rated 5 of 5. |
Level of completeness: | Rated 4 of 5. |
Level of comprehensibility: | Rated 5 of 5. |
Competing interests: | None |
Thank you very much for your very interesting work. Please see below some comments and suggestions that could help clarifying a few things in the present manuscript.
General remarks:
2.2 Monitoring campaign
Line 4-5 With the scope of identifying
Line 5-7 Can you please provide more information about the sampling procedure?
For the swab testing
1st) Can you please provide the rationale behind the selection of these particular locations (kitchen bench, hallway cupboard and bedroom) for wiping i.e. where they potential fungal reserves, where they dusty indicating potential storage of fungal particles etc?
2ND) what kind of swabs did you use i.e. premoistened or dry swab, solvent used etc.
3rd) was there a specific protocol followed i.e. wiping 10cm2 of the surface under examination
For the air sampling
1st) Can you please provide details about the sampling protocol followed i.e. sampling duration, airflow velocity if a pump or other mechanical mean was used, how many litres of air were sampled per room
2nd) Were the occupants allowed to carry out any activities prior to sampling i.e. vacuum, exercise, open the windows, etc? If not for how many hours were they not permitted to carry out any activities.
3rd) Can you please give some specifications of the air sampling cassettes?
For both swab and air sampling
1st) What methods were used for the analysis of the samples?
2nd) How do the surface and air sampling results complement each other?
3.1 Site Inspections
Could you please specify whether the fungal readings originate from?
2nd Paragraph Line 6: I think there is a spelling mistake (raspatory or respiratory)
2nd Paragraph Line 9-10: Could the elevated levels in the kitchen be associated to the fact that in kitchens the fungal readings might be capturing the existence of mould particles that originate from fruit, vegetables or food remnants that have infested by mould and have released spores or fungal particles over the previous days?
Figure 2: Could you please change the line for TVOCs so that the line becomes clearer in the figure?
Figure 3: Can you please delete the zero values for the 31/08 so that there are no vertical lines in the graph?
The CO2 levels seem to be lower than the threshold values you reported. The peak values might be a result of larger occupancy density and since it has not risen above the threshold levels at any time wouldn’t that mean that the property is sufficiently ventilated?