Identification and Characterization of Size-Segregated Bioaerosols at Different Sites in Delhi

Abstract

Ambient levels of culturable bioaerosol were measured at four different sites of Delhi, India in six size ranges (> 7.0 µm, 7.0-4.7 µm, 4.7-3.3 µm, 3.3-2.1 µm, 2.1-1.1 µm, < 1.1 µm). The study also accounted the seasonal variation (monsoon, post monsoon, winter and pre-monsoon) of the air microbes. The sampling was carried out for three different fractions of bioaerosols viz. fungi, gram positive and negative bacteria during August 2010 to April 2011 using a six-stage viable cascade impactor sampler. Unlike gram positive and negative bacteria, the concentration of fungal bioaerosol found in different stages at each site seems to follow a typical pattern in all four season. The typical pattern of concentration depicts that majority of the fungal species found in the diameter range of 3.3-2.1 µm, which coincides with the penetration range in the secondary bronchi of the lungs in the human body. This reveals that majority of the immunotoxic and allergic fungi found at this stage are mostly prone to affect the secondary bronchi in human lungs when inhaled. At all four sites maximum fungal concentration (1740.5-3224.7 CFU m -3 ), gram-positive bacterial concentration (2790.6-9428.3 CFU m -3 ) and gram-negative bacterial concentration (1990.3-7609 CFU m -3 ) were found in post monsoon season. In the majority of the sites, minimum concentrations were found in monsoon period which probably may be due to rain wash during the sampling. For all the three bioaerosol fractions no particular relationship pattern was found to exist between their respective concentrations with temperature and relative humidity (RH). However, higher range of variation was observed at higher concentration levels and lower range of variation at low concentration levels for all the three bioaerosol fractions. Most of the fungal bioaerosol identified such as Penicillium sp., Alternaria sp. and Aspergillus sp. are associated with immunotoxic and allergic diseases.

Indoor Aeroallergens in Asthmatic Pediatric Population in Annaba (Algeria)

“…Thus, our study has shown that the average indoor temperature was approximately 30°C and 54% for humidity in the houses of asthmatic children, which represents favorable conditions for mold growth in indoor environments. Additionally, our results have clearly indicated that there is a strong correlation between the number of CFU m -3 and temperature indoor environments, in particular Penicilliumgenre members, as cited in the literature (Pakpour et al, 2015;Lal et al, 2017). We have also demonstrated that there are highly significant correlations between some fungi (including Aspergillus and Mucor) and humidity recorded in the visited houses because it is well known that fungi generally require moisture to grow and sporulate.…”

Preparation and Characteristic of Antibacterial Facemasks with Chinese Herbal Microcapsules

“…Bioaerosols generated from airborne particles of biological origin include fungi, bacteria, viruses, and fragments of the foregoing or their metabolic products (e.g., endotoxins, mycotoxins) (Chow et al, 2015;Walser et al, 2015;Chen et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2016;Lal et al, 2017). Environmental health studies have indicated that constant exposure to bioaerosols containing high concentrations of bacteria can lead to respiratory diseases including allergies, infections, and other adverse health effect (Bünger et al, 2007;Lu et al, 2016;Mirhoseini et al, 2016).…”

Quantification of Viable Bioaerosol Emanation from an ACMV System and its Impact on Indoor Bioaerosol Pollution

“…Bioaerosol, especially airborne bacteria and fungi, is an important concern for indoor environments (Lal et al, 2017). Human exposure to airborne bacteria and fungi can lead to serious infectious diseases (Cole and Cook, 1998;Daniels et al, 2016;Fan et al, 2017;Kim et al, 2017) such as Legionnaires' disease (Berrington and Hawn, 2013), tuberculosis (TB) (Pedersen et al, 2016) and pneumonic plague (Hammamieh et al, 2016).…”