Airborne bacteria in a wastewater treatment plant: Emission characterization, source analysis and health risk assessment

Yang, Kaixiong; Li, Lin; Wang, Yanjie; Xue, Song; Han, Yizhuo; Liu, Junxin

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2018.11.027

Cited by 155 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Wastewater treatment plants are a potential source of pathogenic bacteria that can be spread not only via water and soil but they also can be aerosolized, becoming a source of airborne infections (Yang et al 2019 ). NGS-based studies of pathogens present in WWTP communities as well as their presence and quantification in the effluent have already been recognized as a good solution for bacterial diseases prevention method (Lu et al 2015 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacterial community structure in rotating biological contactor treating coke wastewater in relation to medium composition

Ziembińska-Buczyńska

Ciesielski

Żabczyński

et al. 2019

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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Biological wastewater treatment using biofilm systems is an effective way to treat difficult wastewater, such as coke wastewater. The information about the structure and the dynamics of this microbial community in biofilm, which are responsible for wastewater treatment, is relevant in the context of treatment efficacy and the biochemical potential to remove various pollutants. However, physico-chemical factors can influence the biofilm community significantly, causing performance disturbances. Therefore, we decided to examine the structure of microbial community in rotating biological contactor (RBC) biofilm during coke wastewater treatment and to investigate the possible shift in the community structure caused by the feeding medium change from synthetic to real coke wastewater. The experiment performed with high-throughput next-generation sequencing (NGS) revealed that bacteria commonly present in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) systems, responsible for nitrite oxidizing, such as Nitrospira or Nitrobacter , were absent or below detection threshold, while Nitrosomonas , responsible for ammonia oxidizing, was detected in a relatively small number especially after shift to real coke wastewater. This research indicates that medium change could cause the change from autotrophic into heterotrophic nitrification led by Acinetobacter. Moreover, biofilm systems can be also a potential source of bacteria possessing high biochemical potential for pollutants removal but less known in WWTP systems, as well as potentially pathogenic microorganisms. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s11356-019-05087-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacterial community structure in rotating biological contactor treating coke wastewater in relation to medium composition

Ziembińska-Buczyńska

Ciesielski

Żabczyński

et al. 2019

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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“…A strong-quality study conducted by Yang et al (39) established hazardous substances other than endotoxins in the air at a WWTP in China. The authors were able to detect three major anions: nitric oxide, sulfur dioxide, and chloride.…”

Section: Others Hazardous Substance Concentrations In the Airmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic Review of Potential Occupational Respiratory Hazards Exposure Among Sewage Workers

Muzaini

Yasin

Ismail

et al. 2021

Front. Public Health

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Background: Sewage workers have a higher risk of exposure to various potential occupational respiratory hazards found in sewage plants. Although previous studies discuss occupational respiratory hazard concentration impacting sewage workers' respiratory health, the results are scarce and mixed. Hence, there is a need to identify the potential respiratory hazards in sewage plants so as to clarify the short- and long-term respiratory health effects. Therefore, this systematic review (SR) aims to critically review previous studies investigating potential respiratory hazards found at sewage plants and their effects on sewage workers' respiratory health.Methods: An SR was conducted using PubMed, EBSCO Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar on peer-reviewed studies published between January 1994 and October 2020 evaluating the impact of potential exposure to respiratory hazards and its effects on respiratory health among sewage workers. “Sewage treatment plant,” “respiratory hazards,” and “respiratory health effects” were the three main search terms chosen in this SR. The inclusion criteria were (1) studies on potential occupational respiratory hazard exposure among sewage workers, (2) manuscripts written in English, and (3) studies published in the peer-reviewed literature. The human observational studies' quality was assessed using the Effective Public Health Practice Project Quality Assessment Tool.Results: We identified 5,660 articles through an initial database search. Only 26 items met the inclusion criteria and were included in this review; 15 human observational studies and 11 environmental assessment studies were conducted in the sewage industries. Most of the human observational studies were rated as moderate quality, two studies were rated as weak quality, and one study with strong quality was identified. Hydrogen sulfide, bioaerosols, particulate matter 2.5 (PM 2.5), and volatile organic compounds (VOC) were found to be potential respiratory hazards. Most of the risks contributed to adverse outcomes on the sewage workers' respiratory health with some inconsistent findings on the relationship between respiratory hazard exposure and respiratory health effects.Conclusion: Our review finds that, although this area is of great importance, quality studies are still lacking. There is a need for additional studies to clarify the effects of respiratory hazard exposure on sewage workers and respiratory health, especially PM 2.5 and VOC.

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“…S7). SourceTracker analysis has been performed to identify the extent of contribution of each source to the sink, as previously reported [36][37][38]. It can be used for estimating the relative contributions of taxa and ARGs from exposed environments (sources) in the human airway sputum (sinks).…”

Section: Sourcetracker Analysis Of Bacteria and Antibiotic Resistancementioning

confidence: 99%

Antibiotic resistance associated with air quality and transferred by airborne particulate matter

Zhou

Liu

Lin

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: Environmental spread of antibiotic resistance has become a public health problem, but the relationship between air quality and antibiotic resistance has not been fully investigated, the effect and mechanism of air pollutants on horizontal genes transfer of antibiotic resistance are rarely mentioned. Results: In the present study, significant correlation ( P < 0.05) between resistance rates of 10 clinical antibiotic-resistant pathogens and number of days when air quality index was below 100 were observed in an extensive survey from 2014 to 2017 in China. In addition, characterization of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), mobile genetic elements (MGEs), and bacterial communities in airborne particulate matter (PM), dust, and human airway sputum samples were profiled in a hospital. PM 2.5 and PM 10 were shown to contain ARGs and MGEs high relative abundance and diversity index. Importantly, transferable multi-resistant plasmids were identified from air, e.g., pTAir-3 with 26 MGEs and 10 ARGs, using conjugative mating assays and nanopore sequencing . Furthermore, PM 2.5 and PM 10 significantly enhanced the conjugative transfer frequencies between bacteria, via inducing increased levels of reactive oxygen species and cell membrane permeability; upregulated gene expression levels were confirmed by genome-wide RNA sequencing. Conclusions: These findings provide a new perspective on antibiotic resistance research and have profound implications for antibiotic resistance control in clinics and environments.

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Airborne bacteria in a wastewater treatment plant: Emission characterization, source analysis and health risk assessment

Cited by 155 publications

References 47 publications

Bacterial community structure in rotating biological contactor treating coke wastewater in relation to medium composition

Bacterial community structure in rotating biological contactor treating coke wastewater in relation to medium composition

Systematic Review of Potential Occupational Respiratory Hazards Exposure Among Sewage Workers

Antibiotic resistance associated with air quality and transferred by airborne particulate matter

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