AAAR 33rd Annual Conference
October 20 - October 24, 2014
Rosen Shingle Creek
Orlando, Florida, USA
Abstract View
Leveraging Real Time Fluorescence Pattern Recognition of Airborne Biological Particles a National Reconnaissance and Database of Water Damaged Buildings
Darrel Baumgardner, Kevin McCabe, Greg Kok, Gary Granger, Matthew Coghill, MARK T. HERNANDEZ, University of Colorado Boulder
Abstract Number: 624 Working Group: Bioaerosols
Abstract Storm and flood damage to the US domestic building stock has significantly increased because of flood zone construction practices, as well as changing climate patterns. The USGS estimates that in the years between 1934 and 2001 the costs of storm associated damage to US buildings followed an increasing trend from less than $ 0.5B to more than $ 3B/yr when normalized to 1995 US Dollars. The incidence of human disease has been reported to increase markedly following residential flooding as well and adverse environmental risks have been associated with occupation of damp and water damaged buildings. Indoor (bio)aerosol exposures have not been extensively documented other than culture-based techniques in this context. Ultraviolet laser induced fluorescence (UV-LIF) is gaining increased attention for its ability to rapidly identify large numbers of airborne particles, which contain materials of primary biological origin. In this context, a new generation of commercial UV-LIF instruments has demonstrated the utility of particle fluorescence in a multitude of field trials; however, the resolution of these instruments in discriminating between different classes of aerobiological particles remains to be catalogued. We report here the characteristic responses of a Waveband Integrated Bioaerosol Sensor (WIBS-4) to recognize bioaerosols germane to public health in large cohort of flood damaged buildings across the US.
Distinct patterns of airborne fluorescent particle signatures were disaggregated by room, and resolved from more than 2000 observations inside water damaged buildings. These observations were log-normally distributed, with clear distinctions between room type in commercial and residential environments. When calibrated to chamber studies of a library of the most commonly occurring airborne fungi, optical spectra associated with bioaerosols can be compiled into useful databases and distributions, which may be leveraged―in real time―to denote significant deviations from indoor air norms.