Hey guys, thanks for the sharp eye. I did miss a reference to mold about halfway down the story. The sentence should read: "On the other hand, some dispensaries' samples returned hardly any microbials at all."
No, mold and bacteria are not the same thing. In fact, that's the issue. The test conducted by C4 Labs was an aerobic plate count, which measures the number of colony-forming units of all microbials in a sample. Mold, yeast and bacteria are microbials. Throughout the story I referenced what was being tested for as "bacteria" as I felt that would be more familiar to readers without biology degrees than "microbials." Upon reflection, I probably should have just stuck with "microbials" as it's the more precise term.
Sorry for the confusion. I should have made it clearer in the story.
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No, mold and bacteria are not the same thing. In fact, that's the issue. The test conducted by C4 Labs was an aerobic plate count, which measures the number of colony-forming units of all microbials in a sample. Mold, yeast and bacteria are microbials. Throughout the story I referenced what was being tested for as "bacteria" as I felt that would be more familiar to readers without biology degrees than "microbials." Upon reflection, I probably should have just stuck with "microbials" as it's the more precise term.
Sorry for the confusion. I should have made it clearer in the story.