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Assessment of bioaerosol contamination (bacteria and fungi) in the largest urban wastewater treatment plant in the Middle East

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Abstract

Bioaerosol concentration was measured in wastewater treatment units in south of Tehran, the largest wastewater treatment plant in the Middle East. Active sampling was carried out around four operational units and a point as background. The results showed that the aeration tank with an average of 1016 CFU/m3 in winter and 1973 CFU/m3 in summer had the greatest effect on emission of bacterial bioaerosols. In addition, primary treatment had the highest impact on fungal emission. Among the bacteria, Micrococcus spp. showed the widest emission in the winter, and Bacillus spp. was dominant in summer. Furthermore, fungi such as Penicillium spp. and Cladosporium spp. were the dominant types in the seasons. Overall, significant relationship was observed between meteorological parameters and the concentration of bacterial and fungal aerosols.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the south of Tehran wastewater treatment plan for providing us with the sampling locations. This work was funded by the Institute for Environmental Research (IER) of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (grant number 90-03-46-21153).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Center for Air Pollution Research (CAPR), Institute for Environmental Research (IER), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

      Sadegh Niazi, Mohammad Sadegh Hassanvand, Amir Hossein Mahvi, Ramin Nabizadeh & Masud Yunesian

    2. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

      Sadegh Niazi, Mohammad Sadegh Hassanvand, Ramin Nabizadeh, Mahmood Alimohammadi, Samira Nabavi, Sasan Faridi, Mohammad Hoseini, Adel Mokamel & Masud Yunesian

    3. Center for Solid Waste Research (CSWR), Institute for Environmental Research (IER), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

      Amir Hossein Mahvi

    4. Cancer Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

      Asghar Dehghani & Mohammad Moradi-Joo

    5. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

      Homa Kashani & Navid Yarali

    Authors
    1. Sadegh Niazi
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    2. Mohammad Sadegh Hassanvand
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    Correspondence to Masud Yunesian.

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    Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

    Sadegh Niazi and Mohammad Sadegh Hassanvand are coequal first author.

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    Niazi, S., Hassanvand, M.S., Mahvi, A.H. et al. Assessment of bioaerosol contamination (bacteria and fungi) in the largest urban wastewater treatment plant in the Middle East. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 16014–16021 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4793-z

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4793-z

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