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Disinfection of Microbial Aerosols

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Modeling the Transmission and Prevention of Infectious Disease

Part of the book series: Advances in Environmental Microbiology ((AEM,volume 4))

Abstract

Disinfection of microbial aerosols gained significant attention among researchers worldwide due to increasing flu pandemics and bioterrorism threats. Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, HEPA filtration, and photocatalytic oxidation are conventional methods of bioaerosol inactivation, and new approaches developed in recent years include application of cold plasma and plasmacluster ions, microwave irradiation, ion emission, thermal treatment, applications of nanoparticles and nanotubes in filtration media, and application of natural products in filtration media. Although all these methods have shown promising responses for airborne microbial inactivation, they have some inevitable limitations. Most of the methods were tested in the laboratories, and adequate field data are still lacking. Furthermore, most of these methods were never tested for real pathogens and emerging drug-resistant pathogens. Advantages and disadvantages of all these conventional and newly developed approaches have been discussed in this review article. The authors conclude that a perfect solution to inactivate all airborne microorganisms does not exist yet. We can combine different microbial inactivation methods to achieve a more effective disinfection approach depending on the types of suspected microorganisms and indoor environmental conditions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health Sciences, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Georgia Southern University, PO Box: 8015, Statesboro, GA, 30460, USA

    Atin Adhikari

  2. Department of Environmental Health, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, PO Box: 670056, Cincinnati, OH, 45267, USA

    Scott Clark

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  1. Atin Adhikari
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  2. Scott Clark
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Correspondence to Atin Adhikari .

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  1. Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

    Christon J. Hurst

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Conflict of Interest: Atin Adhikari declares that he has no conflict of interest. Scott Clark declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval: This chapter does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Adhikari, A., Clark, S. (2017). Disinfection of Microbial Aerosols. In: Hurst, C. (eds) Modeling the Transmission and Prevention of Infectious Disease. Advances in Environmental Microbiology, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60616-3_3

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