Development of a Method for Bacteria and Virus Recovery from Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Filters

Details

• Personal Author:
  Anantharaman S ; Farnsworth JE ; Goyal SM ; Kim SW ; Kuehn TH ; Ramakrishnan MA ; Raynor PC ; Tang W
• Description:
  The aim of the work presented here is to study the effectiveness of building air handling units (AHUs) in serving as high volume sampling devices for airborne bacteria and viruses. An HVAC test facility constructed according to ASHRAE Standard 52.2-1999 was used for the controlled loading of HVAC filter media with aerosolized bacteria and virus. Nonpathogenic Bacillus subtilis var. niger was chosen as a surrogate for Bacillus anthracis. Three animal viruses; transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), avian pneumovirus (APV), and fowlpox virus were chosen as surrogates for three human viruses; SARS coronavirus, respiratory syncytial virus, and smallpox virus; respectively. These bacteria and viruses were nebulized in separate tests and injected into the test duct of the test facility upstream of a MERV 14 filter. SKC Biosamplers upstream and downstream of the test filter served as reference samplers. The collection efficiency of the filter media was calculated to be 96.5 - 1.5% for B. subtilis, however no collection efficiency was measured for the viruses as no live virus was ever recovered from the downstream samplers. Filter samples were cut from the test filter and eluted by hand-shaking. An extraction efficiency of 105 - 19% was calculated for B. subtilis. The viruses were extracted at much lower efficiencies (0.7-20%). Our results indicate that the airborne concentration of spore-forming bacteria in building AHUs may be determined by analyzing the material collected on HVAC filter media, however culture-based analytical techniques are impractical for virus recovery. Molecular-based identification techniques such as PCR could be used. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aerosols Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution, Indoor Bacteria Bacterial Infections Demography Dust Engineering Environmental Exposure Environmental Health Environmental Monitoring Environmental Pollution Immune System Inhalation Exposure Occupational Health Particulate Matter Personal Protective Equipment Public Health Respiratory System Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Safety Management Water Purification Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Aerosol-particles Air-contamination Airborne-particles Bacterial-disease Bacterial-dusts Bacterial-infections Biological-effects Cell-biology Demographic-characteristics Engineering-controls Environmental-exposure Environmental-factors Environmental-hazards Environmental-health Exposure-assessment Exposure-levels Exposure-methods Immune-reaction Immune-system Inhalants Inhalation-studies Personal-protection Physiological-effects Physiological-factors Physiological-response Pollution Protective-equipment Protective-measures Public-health Quantitative-analysis Risk-analysis Risk-factors Safety-measures Safety-practices Statistical-analysis Surface-properties Water-analysis Work-environment Work-practices Workplace-studies

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• ISSN:
  1464-0325
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Minnesota ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  8
• Issue:
  10
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20037361
• Citation:
  J Environ Monit 2006 Sep; 8(10):1006-1013
• Contact Point Address:
  James E. Farnsworth, Engineering Department, TSI Incorporated, 500 Cardigan Road, Saint Paul, MN 55126-3903
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• Performing Organization:
  University of Minnesota Twin Cities
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Environmental Monitoring
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:82bf914d7ea970f5fd2b5d2e84299b6734573b0979a8a89c39e5f4fa1bd6ad2bbe03a176832ff7fd8cbd325a86aa9a976f21047a934711933c386b845df4442c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/188462/cdc_188462_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 653.43 KB ]