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AdTechnical8967 t1_j8dvxuo wrote

There is a lot of stuff floating around in the air like human skin,pollen and fungal spores among many other things. Also, unless humidity is at 0%, there will be water in the air. Humidity is high in many ventilation systems because of the aerosols they use. All that stuff can stick to the walls of the ventilation system, creating biofilms where amoeba and other microbes can feed on.

Legionella lives in some of these microbes, absorbing the nutrients they get when they "eat". Legionela needs Iron to survive, so they can easilly get it from the corrotion ocurring from the "weathering" of the ventilation system.

Unless an environment is being constantly sterilized, microbes will eventually grow. They are everywhere, some are also floating in the air around you right now.

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hausermaniac t1_j8dz6m0 wrote

FYI just to clarify some of the things you've said:

>All that stuff can stick to the walls of the ventilation system, creating biofilms where amoeba and other microbes can feed on

Biofilms are formed by bacteria, not the other way around. They do contribute to persistence and survival as many of the individual cells within a biofilm are not actively metabolizing, making them need fewer nutrients and making them very hard to kill

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>Legionella lives in some of these microbes

Legionella is a microbe (gram-negative bacterium), and it can live within other organisms (like amoebae) as an intracellular parasite, but it does not necessarily have to

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>Legionela needs Iron to survive, so they can easilly get it from the corrotion ocurring from the "weathering" of the ventilation system

Almost all bacteria need small amounts of iron (and other metals) to survive, but they don't need to be on a surface made of iron to acquire it. They can grow on surfaces made of many different types of materials

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HavanaWoody t1_j8fasef wrote

Frikkin skin cells and then the dogs too SOO many and then all the rest pollen The condensate on HVAC in high humid areas like Florida is a thriving jelly menagerie in an endless river of water from the air.

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garry4321 t1_j8enukd wrote

What if I told you, you were MOSTLY bacteria (in terms of cell numbers)?

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