Aerobiology: Wet Laboratory . Air sampling in the wet lab was based on 

 rotating the use of four media in one Anderson air sampler. The total 

 bacterial counts/ft^ for the TSA and 2216 media are presented in Fig. 3. 

 The general bacterial population remained at low levels during the entire 

 mission, while the population was increased on day seven to a level of 

 85/ft3. 



No Staphylococcus aureus or Pseudomonas aeruginosa were isolated from the 

 air on the selective media. 



The fungi count in the wet lab remained at a low level, never above l/ft-*, 

 during the entire mission, Fig. 2. 



The bacterial distribution of day three-Marine Agar air samples revealed 

 over 19 different genera with the major populations being Arthrobacter, 

 Bacillus , Gaf fkya and Sarcina and comprising 65% of the total population. 

 Bacillus was mainly associated with the fifth stage, Gaf fkya with the 

 first three stages, while the other two genera were more evenly distri- 

 buted on the six stages. The day 2-TSA samples had bacteria distributed 

 over 17 genera with the major populations being Acinetobacter , Arthro- 

 bacter , Bacillus , Gaf fkya , and Moraxella and comprising 75% of the total 

 population. In contrast to the first medium Bacillus was predominantly 

 associated with the first stage. Moraxella was found mainly on stage 3. 

 One colony of Staphylococcus aureus was isolated on stage 3, no 

 Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated. 



The comparison of groups (Table 4) shows a greater pigmentation on the 

 marine medium while both media have a high distribution in the Gram- 

 positive catagories, and low distribution of the fermentative types. 



Human Microbiology . Nasal Staphylococcus aureus . A nasal staphylococci 

 survey of each aquanaut was made prior to the start of the mission, and 

 at the end of the mission just prior to the start of the decompression 

 sequence; in this first mission the mid-program samples were omitted. At 

 the beginning of the mission, on the day of the dive and the day prior, 

 all divers were negative for coagulase positive S taphy lococcus aureus . 

 At the end of the mission diver 1 was positive on both days 12 and 13, 

 the other aquanauts remaining negative. 



Skin bacterial flora . The bacterial skin flora was sampled on the day 

 of the dive before entry into the water, the middle of the mission and on 

 the last day of the mission just prior to decompression. A composite of 

 the frequency of isolation by divers, of the various bacteria is presented 

 in Table 5. By looking at the five Individuals as a group it is noted 

 that the mmber of varieties of bacteria decreased from nine at the start 

 to five by the end of the mission. Of course, it is recognized that the 

 entire skin flora cannot be obtained in a single sampling using the swab 

 technique. The predominant bacteria, both as to numbers/cm'^ of skin sur- 

 face and frequency of isolation was Bacillus , with Sarcina second. By 

 the end of the mission there were three main groups: Bacillus , 



IX-46 



