Previous studies have demonstrated that poultry house workers are exposed to very high levels of organic dust and consequently have an increased prevalence of adverse respiratory symptoms. However, the influence of the age of broilers on bioaerosol concentrations has not been investigated. To evaluate the evolution of bioaerosol concentration during the fattening period, bioaerosol parameters (...

The number of composting sites in Europe is rapidly increasing, due to efforts to reduce the fraction of waste destined for landfill, but evidence on possible health impacts is limited. This article systematically reviews studies related to bioaerosol exposures within and near composting facilities and associated health effects in both community and occupational health settings. Six electronic ...

BACKGROUND Influenza virus was used to characterize the efficacy of a cyclone-based, two-stage personal bioaerosol sampler for the collection and size fractionation of aerosolized viral particles. METHODS A Collison single-jet nebulizer was used to aerosolize the attenuated FluMist vaccine into a calm-air settling chamber. Viral particles were captured with bioaerosol samplers that utilize 2 ...

Scientists, health care professionals and the general public have all raised concerns about the potential health impact natural and manmade sources bioaerosols. In response in september 2012 the Natural Environmental Research Council and public health England jointly funded a workshop to review the ‘sources, quantification and health implications of bioaerosols’. The organising committee for th...

Ambient bioaerosols are ubiquitous in the daily environment and can affect health in various ways. However, few studies have been conducted to comprehensively evaluate personal bioaerosol exposure in occupational and indoor environments because of the complex composition of bioaerosols and the lack of standardized sampling/analysis methods. We conducted a study to determine the most efficient c...

Microbiology and atmospheric processes: biological, physical and chemical characterization of aerosol particles D. G. Georgakopoulos, V. Després, J. Fröhlich-Nowoisky, R. Psenner, P. A. Ariya, M. Pósfai, H. E. Ahern, B. F. Moffett, and T. C. J. Hill Agricultural University of Athens, Athens, Greece Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany ...

Identification of mold growth based on microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOCs) may be a viable alternative to current bioaerosol assessment methodologies. A feed-forward back propagation (FFBP) artificial neural network (ANN) was developed to correlate MVOCs with bioaerosol levels in built environments. A cross-validation MATLAB script was developed to train the ANN and produce model resul...

Understanding airborne survival and decay of microorganisms is important for a range of public health and biodefense applications, including epidemiological and risk analysis modeling. Techniques for experimental aerosol generation, retention in the aerosol phase, and sampling require careful consideration and understanding so that they are representative of the conditions the bioaerosol would ...