Narrow Results

Modern medical procedures, including laser surgery, can generate fine aerosols that may carry biologically active agents. With such procedures becoming more commonplace, it is evident that we need to look at the health implications on hospital staff when dealing with highly contagious patients with bacterial and/or viral infections, such as AIDS. The focus of this study is not to determine what portion that population is actually harmful, only to deduce what segment is still biologically active after vaporization from tissues. We have developed procedures to collect and analyze aerosols by size (from >10 μm to less than 0.07 μm) and by time (from minutes to ~ 4 hour increments). Health relevant size cuts for aerosols in a work environment have been adopted by the International Organization for Standardization and the Comite of European de Normalisation. We examined both the nature of the aerosols generated and the efficiency of hospital masks used by personnel in screening aerosols and simulated conditions under which aerosols might be inhaled. Four sets of data were recorded: Mask filtered physical, mask filtered biological, unfiltered physical and unfiltered biological. A combination of PIXE analyses on impactor and filter samples were matched with filters and strips plated on agarose plates and counted for colony forming units to determine the biologically active subset of the population.

Threats associated with bioaerosol weapons have been around for several decades. However, with the recent political developments that changed the image and dynamics of the international order and security, the visibility and importance of these bioaerosol threats have considerably increased. Over the last few years, Defence Research and Development Canada has investigated the spectrometric LIDAR-based standoff bioaerosol detection technique to address this menace. This technique has the advantages of rapidly monitoring the atmosphere over wide areas without physical intrusions and reporting an approaching threat before it reaches sensitive sites. However, it has the disadvantages of providing a quality of information that degrades as a function of range and bioaerosol concentration. In order to determine the importance of these disadvantages, Canada initiated in 1999 the SINBAHD (Standoff Integrated Bioaerosol Active Hyperspectral Detection) project investigating the standoff detection and characterization of threatening biological clouds by Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) and intensified range-gated spectrometric detection techniques. This article reports an overview of the different lessons learned with this program. Finally, the BioSense project, a Technology Demonstration Program aiming at the next generation of wide area standoff bioaerosol sensing, mapping, tracking and classifying systems, is introduced.

Veterinary staff could be in frequent exposure to a variety of physical, chemical and biological hazards. Epidemiologic studies have showed that veterinarians are at increased risk of many occupational illnesses such as dermatoses, respiratory tract illnesses, zoonotic infections, acute pesticide-associated toxicity, fetal loss and site-specific cancers. Most biological hazards are distributed in the form of aerosols in the workplaces. This study intended to investigate the potential occupational hazards faced by veterinarians in small-animal practices through field sampling for microbial pathogens in their working environment. Sampling of bacterial and fungal bioaerosols was carried out using an SKC^Ⓡ standard biostage impactor at an air-flow rate of 28.3Lmin${}^{-1}$ by a vacuum pump through 400 (0.25-mm) holes for 30s. Identification of microbial organisms was carried out by DNA extraction and sequencing for 16S and 18S ribosomal DNA of bacteria and fungi. The results showed the bacteria that occurred most frequently in the sampled hospitals were Micrococcus spp. and Staphylococcus spp., and the fungi were Coriolopsis spp. and Microporus spp. Although some of these microbiota were zoonotic, there were no virulent pathogens identified. Our results revealed the possible biological risks for the veterinary workers in small animal hospitals in Taiwan. Proper disinfection and sterilization procedures in workplaces with health education to the animal care workers shall protect them from the occupational injuries.

Threats associated with bioaerosol weapons have been around for several decades. However, with the recent political developments that changed the image and dynamics of the international order and security, the visibility and importance of these bioaerosol threats have considerably increased. Over the last few years, Defence Research and Development Canada has investigated the spectrometric LIDAR-based standoff bioaerosol detection technique to address this menace. This technique has the advantages of rapidly monitoring the atmosphere over wide areas without physical intrusions and reporting an approaching threat before it reaches sensitive sites. However, it has the disadvantages of providing a quality of information that degrades as a function of range and bioaerosol concentration. In order to determine the importance of these disadvantages, Canada initiated in 1999 the SINBAHD (Standoff Integrated Bioaerosol Active Hyperspectral Detection) project investigating the standoff detection and characterization of threatening biological clouds by Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) and intensified range-gated spectrometric detection techniques. This article reports an overview of the different lessons learned with this program. Finally, the BioSense project, a Technology Demonstration Program aiming at the next generation of wide area standoff bioaerosol sensing, mapping, tracking and classifying systems, is introduced.

The Asian dust phenomena, Kosa, have possibility to carry the microbial particles (Kosa bioaerosol) influencing the microbial habitats and the human health in Japan. In this study, the bioaerosol were collected at 600 m and 2 m above ground in Kanazawa city at the Kosa coming season, April in 2007. In the culture media based on seawater and lake water, the bioaerosol at 600 m indicated the microbial growth only in the seawater medium, but no growth in the lake water medium. The bioaerosol at 2 m grew in the both media. The halophilic bacteria would maintain viable activities in the atmosphere. Furthermore, the microorganisms in the bioaerosol at 2 m indicated the better growth in this order of 0%, 3%, and 10% of NaCl concentrations, and no growth was detected in the 20% NaCl medium. According to the PCR-DGGE (denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis) analysis, same bacterial species were detected in the every NaCl concentration of culture medium, and other bacterial species could grow only in the culture media with 3% or 10% NaCl concentrations. Therefore, the halophilic or halotolerant bacteria would survive in the aerosol at 2 m above ground, and may be related to the microbial transport across the ground-atmosphere.