Science Inventory

Modeling Clothing as a Vector for Transporting Airborne Particles and Pathogens across Indoor Microenvironments

Citation:

Kvasnicka, J., E. Hubal, J. Siegel, J. Scott, AND M. Diamond. Modeling Clothing as a Vector for Transporting Airborne Particles and Pathogens across Indoor Microenvironments. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 56(9):5641-5652, (2022). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c08342

Impact/Purpose:

This study demonstrates application of a microenvironmental exposure model to evaluate transport of respirable particles from one setting to another and associated cumulative exposure. 

Description:

Evidence suggests that human exposure to airborne particles and associated contaminants, including respiratory pathogens, can persist beyond a single microenvironment. By accumulating such contaminants from air, clothing may function as a transport vector and source of “secondary exposure”. To investigate this function, a novel microenvironmental exposure modeling framework (ABICAM) was developed. This framework was applied to a para-occupational exposure scenario involving the deposition of viable SARS-CoV-2 in respiratory particles (0.5-20 µm) from a primary source onto clothing in a nonhealthcare setting and subsequent resuspension and secondary exposure in a car and home. Variability was assessed through Monte Carlo simulations. The total volume of infectious particles on the occupant’s clothing immediately after work was 4800 µm3 (5th-95th percentiles: 870-32 000 µm3 ). This value was 61% (5-95%: 17-300%) of the occupant’s primary inhalation exposure in the workplace while unmasked. By arrival at the occupant’s home after a car commute, relatively rapid viral inactivation on cotton clothing had reduced the infectious volume on clothing by 80% (5-95%: 26-99%). Secondary inhalation exposure (after work) was low in the absence of close proximity and physical contact with contaminated clothing. In comparison, the average primary inhalation exposure in the workplace was higher by about 2-3 orders of magnitude. It remains theoretically possible that resuspension and physical contact with contaminated clothing can occasionally transmit SARS-CoV-2 between humans

Record Details:

Record Type:DOCUMENT( JOURNAL/ PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL)
Product Published Date:04/11/2022
Record Last Revised:06/12/2023
OMB Category:Other
Record ID: 358053