Performance Evaluation of three Personal Bioaerosol Samplers

Wei-Chung Su (1), Yung Sung Cheng (1)

(1) Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute

     Abstract Number: 395
     Last modified: May 11, 2010

Abstract
The need to determine occupational exposure to bioaerosols has increased considerably these days, especially for microbiology-related workplaces or laboratories. Recently, three conical cyclone based personal samplers were developed for the purpose of assessing personal microbial aerosol exposure in the workplace. In order to evaluate the performance of these new samplers, this study carried out a series wind tunnel tests to investigate the sampling efficiency and collection efficiency (aerosol collected in collection media) of these prototypes. The experiment was conducted by mounting the samplers on the chest of a full-size mannequin in a large wind tunnel facility (testing cross section: 4.3 x 3.7 m$^2) under wind speeds of 0.5 and 2.0 m/s. Three sampling orientations (0, 90, and 180 degrees with respect to the wind direction) were used to cover general occupational use conditions of a personal sampler. Fluorescent-tagged monodisperse polystyrene latex and oleic acid aerosols ranging from 0.5 to 20 micro-meter in diameter were employed as the test aerosols. The initial test results showed that the aspiration efficiencies obtained from these three samplers fairly agreed with the ACGIH inhalable convention. However, the collection efficiencies acquired generally were lower than expected. These results provided us with insight into the performance of these samplers under near-natural conditions, and assisted us in evaluating possible modifications to achieve the goal of optimal performance for these newly developed samplers.