Risk of indoor airborne infection transmission estimated from carbon dioxide concentration

Details

• Personal Author:
  Milton DK ; Rudnick SN
• Description:
  The Wells-Riley equation, which is used to model the risk of indoor airborne transmission of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, is sometimes problematic because it assumes steady-state conditions and requires measurement of outdoor air supply rates, which are frequently difficult to measure and often vary with time. We derive an alternative equation that avoids these problems by determining the fraction of inhaled air that has been exhaled previously by someone in the building (rebreathed fraction) using CO2 concentration as a marker for exhaled-breath exposure. We also derive a non-steady-state version of the Wells-Riley equation which is especially useful in poorly ventilated environments when outdoor air supply rates can be assumed constant. Finally, we derive the relationship between the average number of secondary cases infected by each primary case in a building and exposure to exhaled breath and demonstrate that there is likely to be an achievable critical rebreathed fraction of indoor air below which airborne propagation of common respiratory infections and influenza will not occur. Description provided by NIOSH
• Subjects:
  • Air Pollutants, Occupational
  • Air Pollution, Indoor
  • Carbon Dioxide
  • Communicable Diseases
  • Environmental Health
  • Occupational Health
  • Respiratory System
  • Respiratory Tract Diseases
  • Risk Assessment
  • Safety
• Keywords:
  • Indoor-air-pollution
  • Indoor-environmental-quality
  • Biological-effects
  • Disease-transmission
  • Infectious-diseases
  • Air-contamination
  • Respiratory-system-disorders
  • Breathing
  • Breathing-zone
  • Respiratory-infections
  More +
• ISSN:
  0905-6947
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  237-245
• Volume:
  13
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20038645
• Citation:
  Indoor Air 2003 Sep; 13(3):237-245
• Email:
  dmilton@hsph.harvard.edu
• CAS Registry Number:
  • Carbon dioxide (CAS RN 124-38-9)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2003
• NORA Priority Area:
  Work Environment and Workforce: Indoor Environment
• Performing Organization:
  Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19980930
• End Date:
  20010929
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/192288/cdc_192288_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 156.09 KB]
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:26ea8925020eef95ac1c5e0af976d9547bea83b50bb4fa5c12bfa0154f687f6245944d4d6dcf4ff9483ed222de0c703aca1c3a6ff33267a37234d0eb54f2bb3c