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Aspergillus niger: Safety and Risks

Aspergillus niger is a fungus commonly found on dead leaves and decaying vegetation. While it is used in industries, it can potentially produce mycotoxins that cause disease in people, animals, and plants if their immune system is compromised. The NIH classifies A. niger as a low-risk microorganism that can be grown safely industrially with proper containment. Surveys found higher microbial contamination around laboratory, fermenter, and sampling areas in industrial settings, so exposure for single workers is recommended not to exceed 1.5 hours per day.

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89 views2 pages

Aspergillus niger: Safety and Risks

Aspergillus niger is a fungus commonly found on dead leaves and decaying vegetation. While it is used in industries, it can potentially produce mycotoxins that cause disease in people, animals, and plants if their immune system is compromised. The NIH classifies A. niger as a low-risk microorganism that can be grown safely industrially with proper containment. Surveys found higher microbial contamination around laboratory, fermenter, and sampling areas in industrial settings, so exposure for single workers is recommended not to exceed 1.5 hours per day.

Uploaded by

Mira Lucis Caelum
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© © All Rights Reserved
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SAFETY CONSIDERATION

Biological factor of Aspergillus niger

Aspergillus niger is from a set fungus, which is the genus member of Aspergillus. This
set of fungi usually known can reproduce asexually but also it can reproduce sexually in a
perfect form. A. niger can be found mostly on dead leaves, compost piles and decaying
vegetations. Even though A. niger has been recognized in many industries, there is still
concerns about the taxonomy of the species as it can potentially produce mycotoxin that can
cause diseases to people, animal and plants (black rot). There is a case study involving the
fungus Aspergillus in human tissues that is an air-containing space like bronchus and
pulmonary cavity. The disease cause by this fungus is very rare, but it can cause the patient to
be immunosuppressed, which the condition that the patient does not have the ability to prevent
infection, or in other word, low immunity system. The symptoms are chronic coughing even
worse haemoptysis (blood cough) that can lead to tuberculosis or bronchiectasis (Bennett,
1979a). Other than that, A. niger can also cause allergic reactions such as asthma and alveolitis
(inflammation in the lungs), but the cases recorded are very low (Edwards and Al-Zubaidy,
1977). Nonetheless, the severity caused by the fungus are dependent on the psychologic status
of the patient (Bennett, 1980)

However, based on the National Institute of Health Guidelines (NIH) for Recombinant
DNA Molecules, the Aspergillus niger is considered as Class 1 Containment Agent, where this
species is treated as low-risk-class microorganisms, a harmless microbes that can be grown in
good industrial large scale practices (GILSP), but require a good containment (U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, 1986). According to the survey has been done by NIOSH, in the
industrial scales, the area with high microbial contamination is around laboratory, fermenter and
sampling area. Therefore, the exposure recommended to a single worker is 1.5 hours per day
(Reilly, 1991).
REFERENCES

Bennett, J.E. 1979a. Aspergillosis, pp. 546-547. In P. Beeson, W. McDermott, and J.


Wyngaarden, (eds.), Cecil textbook of medicine, 15th edition. W.B Saunders, Philadelphia.

Bennett, J.E. 1980. Aspergillosis, pp. 742-744. In K.J. Isselbacher, R.D. Adams, E. Braunwald,
R.G. Petersdorff, and J.D. Wilson (eds.), Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, McGraw-Hill,
New York.

Edwards, J.H. and T.S. Al-Zubaidy. 1977. Medical aspects. In J. E. Smith and J. A. Pateman,
(eds.), Genetics and physiology of Aspergillus. Academic Press, NY

Reilly,B. 1991. Analysis of environmental releases and occupational exposure in support of


proposed TSCA 5(h)(4) exemption. Unpublished, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
Washington, D.C.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 1986. Guidelines for research involving
recombinant DNA molecules; Notice. 51 FR 16958, May 7, 1986.

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