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

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Abstract

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.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

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Funding

We declare that the sources of funding for this research include the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan). The funding bodies only provide financial support in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript. This study was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51608497) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) (CUGGC07).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, 388 Lumo Road, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Rui-ning Wang & Cheng Yan

  2. Three Gorges Base Development Co., Ltd., Yichang, 443002, People’s Republic of China

    Xiang Li

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  1. Rui-ning Wang
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  2. Xiang Li
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  3. Cheng Yan
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by CY, RW, and XL. The first draft of the manuscript was written by CY and RW. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Cheng Yan.

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Wang, n., Li, X. & Yan, C. Seasonal fluctuation of aerosolization ratio of bioaerosols and quantitative microbial risk assessment in a wastewater treatment plant. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 68615–68632 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15462-5

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