Bio-aerosols in indoor environment: Composition, health effects and analysis.

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Indian J Med

Microbiol. 2008 Oct-Dec;26(4) :302-12.

Bio-aerosols in indoor environment: Composition, health effects

and analysis.

http://www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed/18974481? dopt=AbstractPlu s

Srikanth

P, Sudharsanam

S, Steinberg

R.

Department of Microbiology, Sri Ramachandra Medical College

and Research Institute, Sri Ramachandra University, Porur, Chennai, Tamil

Nadu-600 116, India. srikanth_padma@ rediffmail. com.

Bio-aerosols are airborne particles that are living (bacteria,

viruses and fungi) or originate from living organisms. Their presence in air is

the result of dispersal from a site of colonization or growth. The health

effects of bio-aerosols including infectious diseases, acute toxic effects,

allergies and cancer coupled with the threat of bioterrorism and SARS have led

to increased awareness on the importance of bio-aerosols. The evaluation of

bio-aerosols includes use of variety of methods for sampling depending on the

concentration of microorganisms expected. There have been problems in developing

standard sampling methods, in proving a causal relationship and in establishing

threshold limit values for exposures due to the complexity of composition of

bio-aerosols, variations in human response to their exposure and difficulties in

recovering microorganisms. Currently bio-aerosol monitoring in hospitals is

carried out for epidemiological investigation of nosocomial infectious diseases,

research into airborne microorganism spread and control, monitoring biohazardous

procedures and use as a quality control measure. In India there is little

awareness regarding the quality of indoor air, mould contamination in indoor

environments, potential source for transmission of nosocomial infections in

health care facilities. There is an urgent need to undertake study of indoor

air, to generate baseline data and explore the link to nosocomial infections.

This article is a review on composition, sources, modes of transmission, health

effects and sampling methods used for evaluation of bio-aerosols, and also

suggests control measures to reduce the loads of bio-aerosols.

PMID: 18974481 [PubMed - in process]