The nexus between in-car aerosol concentrations, ventilation and the risk of respiratory infection

Kumar, Prashant; Omidvarborna, Hamid; Tiwari, Arvind; Morawska, Lidia

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2021.106814

Cited by 32 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 100 publications

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“…In addition, reports from literature indicated that increased air exchange rate and airflow movement by window-open, air condition or fan significantly reduce the infection risk of COVID-19 in-car and on trains under room temperature (Kumar et al, 2021a; Shinohara et al, 2021). The airflow movement environment accelerates the evaporation of the droplet, changes envelope protein, and then affects virus stability under room temperature (Dbouk et al, 2020; Jayaweera et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stability of SARS-CoV-2 in cold-chain transportation environments and the efficacy of disinfection measures

Peng¹,

Li²,

Pathak

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Cold-chain environment could extend the survival duration of SARS-CoV-2 and increases the risk of transmission. However, the effect of clod-chain environmental factors and packaging materials on SARS-CoV-2 stability and the efficacy of intervention measures to inactivate SARS-CoV-2 under cold-chain environment remains uncertain. This study aimed to unravel cold-chain environmental factors that preserved the stability of SARS-CoV-2 and disinfection measures against SARS-CoV-2 under the cold-chain environment. The spike gene of SARS-CoV-2 isolated from Wuhan hu-1 was used to construct the SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus and used as model of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The decay rate of SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus in the cold-chain environment, various types of packaging material surfaces i.e., PE plastic, stainless steel, Teflon and cardboard, and in frozen seawater was investigated. The influence of LED visible light(wavelength 450 nm-780 nm) and airflow movement on the stability of SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus at -18°C were subsequently assessed. The results show that SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus decayed more rapidly on porous cardboard surface compared with the non-porous surfaces including PE plastic, stainless steel and Teflon. Compared with 25°C, the decay rate of SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus was significantly lower at low temperature. Seawater preserved viral stability both at -18°C and repeated freeze-thawing cycles compared with deionized water. LED visible light illumination and airflow movement environment at -18°C reduced the SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus stability. In conclusion, our results indicate cold-chain temperature and seawater as risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 transmission and LED visible light illumination and airflow movement as possible disinfection measures of SARS-CoV-2 under the cold-chain environment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stability of SARS-CoV-2 in cold-chain transportation environments and the efficacy of disinfection measures

Peng¹,

Li²,

Pathak

et al. 2022

Preprint

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show abstract

“…For the car, two different ventilation settings were separately examined: outside air intake and recirculation. Open-window configurations were not considered in this study but have been considered elsewhere. , For simplicity, the duration of time spent outdoors in transit between microenvironments (e.g., work to car) was chosen to be negligible. Consequently, the simulation did not include the potential for relatively rapid inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 by sunlight exposure, as observed in laboratory experiments. , …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Clothing as a Vector for Transporting Airborne Particles and Pathogens across Indoor Microenvironments

Kvasnicka

Hubal

Siegel

et al. 2022

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Evidence suggests that human exposure to airborne particles and associated contaminants, including respiratory pathogens, can persist beyond a single microenvironment. By accumulating such contaminants from air, clothing may function as a transport vector and source of "secondary exposure". To investigate this function, a novel microenvironmental exposure modeling framework (ABICAM) was developed. This framework was applied to a para-occupational exposure scenario involving the deposition of viable SARS-CoV-2 in respiratory particles (0.5−20 μm) from a primary source onto clothing in a nonhealthcare setting and subsequent resuspension and secondary exposure in a car and home. Variability was assessed through Monte Carlo simulations. The total volume of infectious particles on the occupant's clothing immediately after work was 4800 μm 3 (5th−95th percentiles: 870−32 000 μm 3 ). This value was 61% (5−95%: 17−300%) of the occupant's primary inhalation exposure in the workplace while unmasked. By arrival at the occupant's home after a car commute, relatively rapid viral inactivation on cotton clothing had reduced the infectious volume on clothing by 80% (5−95%: 26−99%). Secondary inhalation exposure (after work) was low in the absence of close proximity and physical contact with contaminated clothing. In comparison, the average primary inhalation exposure in the workplace was higher by about 2−3 orders of magnitude. It remains theoretically possible that resuspension and physical contact with contaminated clothing can occasionally transmit SARS-CoV-2 between humans.

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“…According to the knowledge about respiratory infectious diseases, two possible modes of transmission exist: direct contact (e.g., contact with the contaminated surfaces) and respiratory droplet (Kumar and Morawska 2019;Santos et al 2020). Small respiratory droplets spread into the air and can remain airborne as aerosols (carrying the virus) for an extended period (Ai et al 2020;Ren et al 2021;Kumar et al 2021). Thus, the airborne spread of infectious diseases cannot be neglected to reduce the likelihood of infection among healthy occupants (Dai and Zhao 2020;Wang et al 2021;Berry et al 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of ionizers on prevention of airborne infection in classroom

et al. 2022

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Infectious diseases (e.g., coronavirus disease 2019) dramatically impact human life, economy and social development. Exploring the low-cost and energy-saving approaches is essential in removing infectious virus particles from indoors, such as in classrooms. The application of air purification devices, such as negative ion generators (ionizers), gains popularity because of the favorable removal capacity for particles and the low operation cost. However, small and portable ionizers have potential disadvantages in the removal efficiency owing to the limited horizontal diffusion of negative ions. This study aims to investigate the layout strategy (number and location) of ionizers based on the energy-efficient natural ventilation in the classroom to improve removal efficiency (negative ions to particles) and decrease infection risk. Three infected students were considered in the classroom. The simulations of negative ion and particle concentrations were performed and validated by the experiment. Results showed that as the number of ionizers was 4 and 5, the removal performance was largely improved by combining ionizer with natural ventilation. Compared with the scenario without an ionizer, the scenario with 5 ionizers largely increased the average removal efficiency from around 20% to 85% and decreased the average infection risk by 23%. The setup with 5 ionizers placed upstream of the classroom was determined as the optimal layout strategy, particularly when the location and number of the infected students were unknown. This work can provide a guideline for applying ionizers to public buildings when natural ventilation is used.

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The nexus between in-car aerosol concentrations, ventilation and the risk of respiratory infection

Cited by 32 publications

References 100 publications

Stability of SARS-CoV-2 in cold-chain transportation environments and the efficacy of disinfection measures

Stability of SARS-CoV-2 in cold-chain transportation environments and the efficacy of disinfection measures

Modeling Clothing as a Vector for Transporting Airborne Particles and Pathogens across Indoor Microenvironments

Impact of ionizers on prevention of airborne infection in classroom

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