Respiratory Health Effects of Exposure to Ambient Particulate Matter and Bioaerosols

Abstract

Researchers have been studying the respiratory health effects of ambient air pollution for more than 70 years. While air pollution as a whole can include gaseous, solid, and liquid constituents, this article focuses only on the solid and liquid fractions, termed particulate matter (PM). Although PM may contain anthropogenic, geogenic, and/or biogenic fractions, in this article, particles that originate from microbial, fungal, animal, or plant sources are distinguished from PM as bioaerosols. Many advances have been made toward understanding which particle and exposure characteristics most influence deposition and clearance processes in the respiratory tract. These characteristics include particle size, shape, charge, and composition as well as the exposure concentration and dose rate. Exposure to particles has been directly associated with the exacerbation and, under certain circumstances, onset of respiratory disease. The circumstances of exposure leading to disease are dependent on stressors such as human activity level and changing particle composition in the environment. Historically, researchers assumed that bioaerosols were too large to be inhaled into the deep lung, and thus, not applicable for study in conjunction with PM 2.5 (the 2.5-μm and below size fraction that can reach the deep lung); however, this concept is beginning to be challenged. While there is extensive research on the health effects of PM and bioaerosols independent of each other, only limited work has been performed on their coexposure. Studying these two particle types as dual stressors to the respiratory system may aid in more thoroughly understanding the etiology of respiratory injury and disease.

The Toxicity of Wiped Dust and Airborne Microbes in Individual Classrooms Increase the Risk of Teachers’ Work-Related Symptoms: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…However, microbial toxins can inhibit the motility of cilia, just as occurs with exposure to tobacco smoke [59,124,125]. The airway particle load is directed mostly to the upper respiratory tract [126]. Upper respiratory symptoms were also most common among teachers' toxicity-related symptoms in our series.…”

Mie–Raman–fluorescence lidar observations of aerosols during pollen season in the north of France

“…Pollen grains represent a significant fraction of primary biological particles emitted from the biosphere into the atmosphere in certain seasons and locations (Fröhlich-Nowoisky et al, 2016). There has been a growing interest in pollen study in recent years because they can affect human health by causing allergy-related diseases and contribute to cloud formation by acting as giant cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) (Diehl et al, 2001;Pope, 2010;Griffiths et al, 2012;D'Amato et al, 2014;Steiner et al, 2015;Lake et al, 2017;Mack et al, 2020). To investigate the processes of pollen transport and dispersion, information about the vertical distribution of pollen grains is needed, and this information can be obtained from lidar measurements.…”

“…Atmospheric biological particles efficiently produce wideband fluorescence emissions when exposed to UV radiation (Pöhlker et al, 2012;Pan, 2015;Miyakawa et al, 2015), which offers an opportunity for monitoring them with fluorescence lidars. Nowadays, lidar spectrometers based on multi-anode photomultipliers allow simultaneous detection of fluorescence backscattering in 32 spectral bins (Sugimoto et al, 2012;Reichardt, 2014;Reichardt et al, 2017;Saito et al, 2018;Richardson et al, 2019).…”

Health Risks Associated with Occupational Exposure to Biological Air Pollutants Occurring during the Processing of Biomass for Energy Purposes: A Case Study

“…The type of source materials, material processing, climatic conditions, and storage technology are the main environmental factors influencing the potential pathogenicity and the concentration of fungi and bacteria in the dust [17]. Combined heat and power plant workers represent a group particularly exposed to the risks associated with the presence of high concentrations of biological air pollutants [18].…”