Methodologies for Assessing Bioaerosol Exposures
In: Nriagu, J O (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Environmental Health, pp. 722 - 730, Elsevier, Burlington, 2011, ISBN: 978-0-444-52272-6.
Full abstract
Bioaerosols include viruses, bacteria, fungi, pollen, and their fragments as well as animal allergens. Bioaerosol exposure is common in indoor and outdoor environments and may cause infections, allergies, irritation, and toxic effects. The size of biological particles varies widely, from nanoscale (virions and microbial fragments) to approximately 100μm (pollen grains). The same physical principles that are applied to nonbiological particles can be applied to bioaerosol sampling in terms of sampling efficiency of a given particle size range. When sampling bioaerosols for exposure assessment purposes, one has to consider what biological property would be the most relevant measure for the health effect in question. Cultivation and microscopic counting are traditional analytical methods, but recently several new methods are emerging that are based on chemical, biological, or immunochemical analysis of bioaerosol components. Data interpretation is based on comparisons of results in target and reference areas or populations. When comparing data with previously published values, only results that are obtained using the same methodology should be directly compared.