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Fennelly M, Hellebust S, Wenger J, O'Connor D, Griffith GW, Plant BJ, Prentice MB. Portable HEPA filtration successfully augments natural-ventilation-mediated airborne particle clearance in a legacy design hospital ward. J Hosp Infect 2023; 131:54-57. [PMID: 36198345 PMCID: PMC9526867 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhin.2022.09.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2022] [Revised: 09/23/2022] [Accepted: 09/26/2022] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
As the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 pandemic has proceeded, ventilation has been recognized increasingly as an important tool in infection control. Many hospitals in Ireland and the UK do not have mechanical ventilation and depend on natural ventilation. The effectiveness of natural ventilation varies with atmospheric conditions and building design. In a challenge test of a legacy design ward, this study showed that portable air filtration significantly increased the clearance of pollutant aerosols of respirable size compared with natural ventilation, and reduced spatial variation in particle persistence. A combination of natural ventilation and portable air filtration is significantly more effective for particle clearance than either intervention alone.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Fennelly
- School of Chemistry and Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland; Department of Pathology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland; School of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Technological University Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
| | - S Hellebust
- School of Chemistry and Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
| | - J Wenger
- School of Chemistry and Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
| | - D O'Connor
- School of Chemical Sciences, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland
| | - G W Griffith
- Department of Life Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK
| | - B J Plant
- Adult Cystic Fibrosis Centre, Cork University Hospital, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
| | - M B Prentice
- Department of Pathology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland; APC Microbiome Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
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Fennelly M, O'Connor DJ, Hellebust S, Murphy N, Casey C, Eustace J, Plant BJ, Sodeau JR, Prentice MB. Effectiveness of a plasma treatment device on microbial air quality in a hospital ward, monitored by culture. J Hosp Infect 2020; 108:109-112. [PMID: 33188867 PMCID: PMC7658605 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhin.2020.11.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2020] [Revised: 10/26/2020] [Accepted: 11/06/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
This study analysed the effectiveness of plasma treatment on airborne bacteria and surface counts during a 14-day intervention within a four-bedded bay in an adult respiratory ward at Cork University Hospital, Ireland. One-hundred-litre air samples were collected twice daily every weekday for 4 weeks, with settle plates and surface swabs. The plasma treatment did not have an effect on airborne bacteria and fungi that was detectable by culture. However, the possibility that culture-based sampling may be insufficiently sensitive to detect an effect, or that the duration of the study was insufficient for plasma treatment to affect a complex environment, cannot be excluded.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Fennelly
- Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland; Department of Pathology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland; School of Chemistry, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
| | - D J O'Connor
- School of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Technological University Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - S Hellebust
- Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland; School of Chemistry, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
| | - N Murphy
- Adult Cystic Fibrosis Centre, Cork University Hospital, Cork, Ireland
| | - C Casey
- College of Medicine and Health, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
| | - J Eustace
- Health Research Board Clinical Research Facility-Cork, Cork, Ireland
| | - B J Plant
- Adult Cystic Fibrosis Centre, Cork University Hospital, Cork, Ireland; College of Medicine and Health, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland; APC Microbiome Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
| | - J R Sodeau
- Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland; School of Chemistry, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
| | - M B Prentice
- Department of Pathology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland; College of Medicine and Health, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland; APC Microbiome Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
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Platt SM, El Haddad I, Pieber SM, Zardini AA, Suarez-Bertoa R, Clairotte M, Daellenbach KR, Huang RJ, Slowik JG, Hellebust S, Temime-Roussel B, Marchand N, de Gouw J, Jimenez JL, Hayes PL, Robinson AL, Baltensperger U, Astorga C, Prévôt ASH. Gasoline cars produce more carbonaceous particulate matter than modern filter-equipped diesel cars. Sci Rep 2017; 7:4926. [PMID: 28706240 PMCID: PMC5509693 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-03714-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 101] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2016] [Accepted: 05/10/2017] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Carbonaceous particulate matter (PM), comprising black carbon (BC), primary organic aerosol (POA) and secondary organic aerosol (SOA, from atmospheric aging of precursors), is a highly toxic vehicle exhaust component. Therefore, understanding vehicle pollution requires knowledge of both primary emissions, and how these emissions age in the atmosphere. We provide a systematic examination of carbonaceous PM emissions and parameterisation of SOA formation from modern diesel and gasoline cars at different temperatures (22, -7 °C) during controlled laboratory experiments. Carbonaceous PM emission and SOA formation is markedly higher from gasoline than diesel particle filter (DPF) and catalyst-equipped diesel cars, more so at -7 °C, contrasting with nitrogen oxides (NOX). Higher SOA formation from gasoline cars and primary emission reductions for diesels implies gasoline cars will increasingly dominate vehicular total carbonaceous PM, though older non-DPF-equipped diesels will continue to dominate the primary fraction for some time. Supported by state-of-the-art source apportionment of ambient fossil fuel derived PM, our results show that whether gasoline or diesel cars are more polluting depends on the pollutant in question, i.e. that diesel cars are not necessarily worse polluters than gasoline cars.
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Affiliation(s)
- S M Platt
- Paul Scherrer Institute, Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, CH-5232, Villigen, Switzerland
- NILU-Norwegian Institute for Air Research, PO Box 100, 2027, Kjeller, Norway
| | - I El Haddad
- Paul Scherrer Institute, Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, CH-5232, Villigen, Switzerland.
| | - S M Pieber
- Paul Scherrer Institute, Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, CH-5232, Villigen, Switzerland
| | - A A Zardini
- European Commission Joint Research Centre, Directorate for Energy, Transport and Climate, Sustainable Transport Unit, 21027, Ispra, (VA), Italy
| | - R Suarez-Bertoa
- European Commission Joint Research Centre, Directorate for Energy, Transport and Climate, Sustainable Transport Unit, 21027, Ispra, (VA), Italy
| | - M Clairotte
- European Commission Joint Research Centre, Directorate for Energy, Transport and Climate, Sustainable Transport Unit, 21027, Ispra, (VA), Italy
| | - K R Daellenbach
- Paul Scherrer Institute, Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, CH-5232, Villigen, Switzerland
| | - R-J Huang
- Paul Scherrer Institute, Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, CH-5232, Villigen, Switzerland
- Key Laboratory of Aerosol Chemistry & Physics, State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, 710061, China
| | - J G Slowik
- Paul Scherrer Institute, Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, CH-5232, Villigen, Switzerland
| | - S Hellebust
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LCE, Marseille, France
- Central Statistics Office, Cork, Ireland
| | | | - N Marchand
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LCE, Marseille, France
| | - J de Gouw
- NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO, USA
- CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - J L Jimenez
- CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
- Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - P L Hayes
- Département de Chimie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - A L Robinson
- Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA
| | - U Baltensperger
- Paul Scherrer Institute, Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, CH-5232, Villigen, Switzerland
| | - C Astorga
- European Commission Joint Research Centre, Directorate for Energy, Transport and Climate, Sustainable Transport Unit, 21027, Ispra, (VA), Italy
| | - A S H Prévôt
- Paul Scherrer Institute, Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, CH-5232, Villigen, Switzerland.
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