Microbiological Indoor Quality Assessment of Public Toilets in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State, Nigeria

Aims: Assessing the microbiological quality of indoor air in some public toilets of major motor parks in Port Harcourt metropolis

Study Design: Indoor air of public toilets in three major parks in Port Harcourt was sampled using the sedimentation technique. This was done in two periods (morning and evening).

Place and Duration of Study: This study, were carried out in the Mile 3, Waterlines and RTC motor parks public toilets. This was a three months study (March-May, 2018).

Methodology: The sedimentation technique was used in evaluating for microbial population of air samples. Freshly prepared Nutrient (NA), MacConkey and Sabouraud Dextrose agar (SDA) plates in duplicates were left open for 15minutes and 1m above the ground in the various study sites. Samples were later transported to the Microbiology Laboratory and incubated at 28ºC for 3-7 days for fungi and at 37ºC for 24 hours for bacteria and coliforms. After incubation, bacterial and fungal populations were enumerated and distinct isolates were purified by subculturing onto fresh NA and SDA plates. The purified isolates were used for characterization.

Results: Bacterial genera belonging to; Staphylococcus, Bacillus, Providencia, Pseudomonas, Escherichia, Enterobacter and Klebsiella were isolated and fungal genera belonging to: Aspergillus, Penicillium, Rhizopus, Candida, and Mucor species were identified in this study.

Conclusion: The high microbial loads in this study indicate that the indoor airs of these public toilets were above the suggested WHO standard of 1000Cfu/m3. Thus, this could pose serious health challenges to people who use and even those who work in the public toilets. Also, some of the bacterial and fungal genera identified could be pathogenic strains which may cause diseases or other allergic reactions.