AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Development of an Experimental System for Assessing Indoor Bioaerosol Transport and Control
STEPHANIE KUNKEL, Parham Azimi, Brent Stephens, Illinois Institute of Technology
Abstract Number: 333 Working Group: Bioaerosols
Abstract Many microbial pathogens are transmitted via airborne routes in indoor environments. Breathing, sneezing, and coughing are important sources of many of these viral, bacterial, and fungal species, with microbes being aerosolized and dispersed in droplets. Knowledge of how this dispersion is affected by outdoor air ventilation, particle deposition, and central HVAC or stand-alone particle filtration is critical to understanding how the diseases caused by these microbes are spread and controlled. Here we report on the development of a custom nebulizer-based respiratory activity simulator that, when combined with size-resolved bioaerosol sampling and DNA extraction, can be used to aerosolize model organisms and measure their transport and control indoors. Measurements of airflow rates from the compressor main airflow (lung flow) and the nebulizer (aerosol flow) were conducted for two different simulated lung volume settings. Airflow rates ranged from ~2.7 L/s to ~7.5 L/s, demonstrating accurate reproductions of human lung flows similar to those observed in previous investigations of human respiratory activities. The respiratory activity simulator was then used to aerosolize three model organisms in an unoccupied test facility: (1) Escherichia coli K12, a gram negative bacterium (size ~1 micro-meter), is used as a model for Bordella and Neisseria, (2) Bacillus subtilis, a gram positive bacterium (size ~3 micro-meter), is used as a model for Cornybacterium, Mycobacterium, and Streptococcus, (3) Neurospora crassa, a ~4 micro-meter fungus, is used as a model for Aspergillus and Cryptococcus. Air samplers collected sufficient biomass on the filters to perform both PCR and qPCR amplification and quantification, demonstrating that the organisms can be successfully aerosolized and collected in a manner that realistically reflects human coughing and breathing. Next we will test phages MS2 and T4 to model viral particles, and all model organisms will then be evaluated under a variety of ventilation and filtration conditions.