A Comparative Analysis of Potential Aerosol Exposure in a Wide-Body Aircraft Cabin Using Tracer Gas and Fluorescent Particles

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bennett J ; Hosni M ; Jones B ; Mahmoud S
• Description:
  We compare two aerosol surrogate tracers in aircraft cabins for breathing and coughing sources: tracer gas collected in the ACER Boeing 767 mock-up and fluorescent particles collected in an actual Boeing 767 aircraft by the US Transportation Command (TRANSCOM). Each source was located individually in window and middle seats. Exposure generally decreased with source distance. A window seat breathing source resulted in good agreement between datasets for exposure (as percent of release) for the TRANSCOM hangar-AFT testing mode, which corresponds to the 11-row cabin ACER laboratory space. Average tracer gas exposure for a middle seat breathing source was higher in the ACER study than the fluorescent particle tracer exposure in the TRANSCOM study. Using a coughing source in a window seat, the exposure for the TRANSCOM data was higher within the first two rows from the source before decreasing to and tracking with the ACER levels, until increasing after about 5 m away. A similar trend was recorded for a middle seat coughing source with higher overall exposure for the TRANSCOM data. Sources of exposure variation between the studies include particle deposition. This work helps optimize aerosol dispersion research in aircraft cabins and provides some validation to the existing studies. Highlights: Laboratory cabin tracer gas (ACER) and real aircraft tracer particle results (TRANSCOM) differed significantly due to deposition and chaotic airflow patterns. All individual seat measurements were below 0.3% of total released mass. Tracer gas measurements were higher than particle results for a breathing source. Particle results were higher than tracer gas results for a coughing source. Measurements showed large variability near sources and general decrease with distance. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aerosols Aircraft Communicable Diseases Occupational Health Safety Ventilation
• Keywords:
  Aerosol Particles Author Keywords: Aerosol Breathing Atmospheres COVID-19 Particle Aerodynamics Tracer Studies TRANSCOM
• ISSN:
  1473-3315
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Kansas ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 7
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DFSE - Division of Field Studies and Engineering
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  104-124
• Volume:
  23
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20069061
• Citation:
  Int J Vent 2024 Apr; 23(2):104-124
• Contact Point Address:
  James Bennett, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Field Studies and Engineering, Cincinnati, OH
• Email:
  jbennett@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2024
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  International Journal of Ventilation
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c2c5d54a1d810bf5852a9408f411fa9fabac86265ff43b2a9a91c1fd59a59934b69787d7b5df3a9e8858111c9868ab5d71f38f2c11b63b35fd02f83ec9df39e4
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/207610/cdc_207610_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.42 MB ]