Seasonal fluctuation of aerosolization ratio of bioaerosols and quantitative microbial risk assessment in a wastewater treatment plant

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 28; no. 48; pp. 68615 - 68632
• Main Authors: Wang, Rui-ning, Li, Xiang, Yan, Cheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.12.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aeration; Aerators; Aerosols; Air Microbiology; Airborne bacteria; Airborne microorganisms; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Bacteria; Benchmarks; Bioaerosols; Cold season; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental science; Exposure; Female; Fungi; Health risk assessment; Health risks; Humans; Male; Masks; Microorganisms; Occupational exposure; Public health; Research Article; Risk Assessment; Seasonal variations; Seasons; Waste Water Technology; Wastewater; Wastewater treatment; Wastewater treatment plants; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Water Purification; Water treatment; Intestinal pathogenic bacteria; Microporous aerator tank; Imprudent estimate; Conservative estimate; Health risk; Inverted umbrella aerator tank
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-15462-5

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) play a vital role in public health because it can emit a large quantity of bioaerosols. Exposure to bioaerosols from WWTPs is a potential health risk to WWTP workers and surrounding residents. In this study, the seasonal fluctuation of aerosolization ratios of several bioaerosols and quantitative health risks of the WWTP workers and the surrounding residents exposed to total coliform, fecal coliform, and enterococcal bioaerosols were analyzed. Results showed that the aerosolization ratio of airborne bacteria was higher in the cold seasons and lower in the warm seasons, whereas the aerosolization ratio of airborne fungi was the highest in summer. The aerosolization ratio of airborne fungi was evidently higher than that of other bioaerosols. Moreover, the aerosolization ratio under the inverted umbrella aerator mode was generally higher than that under the microporous aerator mode. For each exposure scenario, the health risks of males were generally 7.2–26.7% higher than those of females. The health risks of the exposure population exposed to total coliform and enterococcal bioaerosols were generally higher in warm seasons, whereas those of the population exposed to fecal coliform bioaerosol were the highest in winter. Additionally, the health risks of exposure population without masks under the imprudent/conservative estimate all exceeded the benchmarks. However, when equipped with masks, all the exposure populations’ health risks decreased 1–2 orders of magnitude and approached acceptable levels. This research methodically provides new scientific data on the aerosolization ratio of microorganism bioaerosols in a WWTP and promotes the comprehension of their quantitative health risks under imprudent/conservative estimates.