AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
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Sampling of Bacterial Aerosols using a Personal Electrostatic Particle Concentrator
SEONGKYEOL HONG, Myeong-Woo Kim, Jaesung Jang, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Korea
Abstract Number: 67 Working Group: Bioaerosols
Abstract Bioaerosols including fungi, bacteria, and viruses can cause allergies, infectious diseases, and other adverse health effects. Since the exposure to bioaerosols is usually assessed using air sampling and subsequent analyses, the sampler is required to provide highly concentrated samples without damaging the bio-particles’ physical and biological states in the air. We previously developed a personal electrostatic particle concentrator (EPC) for gentle sampling of submicrometer airborne virus particles, and the concentration of infectious T3 phage was 1682 times higher in the EPC than in the SKC BioSampler. In the current study, bacterial aerosols were sampled with the EPC and compared with the BioSampler. The physical collection efficiency and biological recovery were examined varying the collection media, applied voltages, and sampling flow rates. The influence of electrolytes of the collection media on the viability of the collected bacteria will be discussed. For the sampling of Pseudomonas fluorescens aerosols, the physical collection efficiencies based on the bacterial cells collected in the collection medium were 53.3% and 77.3% in the EPC (1.2 L/min) and the BioSampler (12.5 L/min) respectively. In spite of the lower collection efficiency and the sampling flow rate, the total bacterial concentration was 2.6 times higher in the EPC than the BioSampler. In addition, the biological recovery rate was 1.9 times higher in the EPC than the BioSampler. Owing to the high sample concentration in the EPC, it can be potentially used for rapid detection of bioaerosols in conjunction with biosensors.