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Aerosol Generation from Flute Playing
KARIN ARDON-DRYER, Lisa Garner Santa, Michael San Francisco, Emily Bailey, Department of Geosciences, Texas Tech University
Abstract Number: 556
Working Group: Infectious Aerosols in the Age of COVID-19
Abstract
The current covid-19 crisis brought into question the safety of musical rehearsal and performance. Aerosol spread in flute playing occurs as the flutist’s airstream splits crosses the lip-plate and as air exits the flute through the foot joint. The flutist’s air also escapes through the tone holes, though at a much slower speed. Our study examined the emission of aerosol particles (concentration and size distribution) and emission of biological particles related to flute playing. The potential of two mitigation devices was included in the experiment. These mitigation devices were the Win-D-Fender™, originally designed to block wind from interfering with the flutist’s airstream when playing outdoors, and the Rose Johnson attachment, or Flute Boot, a lightweight cloth “sock” attached to a silicone ring that slides over the end of the foot joint.
Particles in a size range of 10 nm up to 10 micrometers were captured using TSI NanoScan SMPS (Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer) and Optical Particle Sizer (OPS) devices. The presence of biological particles including (SARS-CoV-2, Influenza A virus, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumonia, and RNAse P) was examined using real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR).
Aerosol emissions from ten different players were measured in this study, half female and half male. Flute players' ages ranged from 22 to 52, and their years of playing ranged from 9 to 40 years. Some participants did not show a significant increase in aerosol emission while playing the flute, while others (referred to as super-emitters), had a high aerosol emission even with the mitigation devices. We found that the Win-D-Fender helped to reduce emissions, but the Rose attachment was not as effective. To our surprise, no biological particles were detected.