Bioaerosol emissions and detection of airborne antibiotic resistance genes from a wastewater treatment plant

Li, Jing; Zhou, Lian-Tong; Zhang, Xiangyu; Xu, Caijia; Dong, Liming; Yao, Maosheng

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2015.06.030

Cited by 156 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 47 publications

(1 reference statement)

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“…The fluorescent properties of PAHs are well known both in basic chemical literature and as observed in the atmosphere (Niessner and Krupp, 1991;Finlayson-Pitts and Pitts, 1999;Panne et al, 2000;Slowik et al, 2007). PAHs can be produced by a number of anthropogenic sources and are emitted in the exhaust from vehicles and other combustion sources as well as from biomass burning (Aizawa andKosaka, 2010, 2008;Abdel-Shafy and Mansour, 2016;Lv et al, 2016). PAHs alone exhibit high fluorescence quantum yields (Pöhlker et al, 2012;Mercier et al, 2013) but as pure materials are not usually present in high concentrations at sizes large enough (> 0.8 µm) to be detected by the WIBS.…”

Section: Broad Separation Of Particle Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both the WIBS and UV-APS, in various version updates, have been applied to many types of studies regarding outdoor aerosol characterization. For example, they have been important instruments: in the study of ice nuclei Mason et al, 2015;Twohy et al, 2016), toward the understanding of outdoor fungal spore concentrations (Gosselin et al, 2016;Saari et al, 2015a;O'Connor et al, 2015b), to investigate the concentration and properties of bioaerosols from long-range transport (Hallar et al, 2011), in tropical aerosol Whitehead et al, 2010Whitehead et al, , 2016Huffman et al, 2012;Valsan et al, 2016), in urban aerosol Saari et al, 2015b;Yu et al, 2016), from composting centers (O'Connor et al, 2015b), at high altitude Gabey et al, 2013;Perring et al, 2015;Ziemba et al, 2016), and in many other environments (Healy et al, 2014;Li et al, 2016;O'Connor et al, 2015a). The same instrumentation has been utilized for a number of studies involving the built, or indoor, environment as well (Wu et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Systematic characterization and fluorescence threshold strategies for the wideband integrated bioaerosol sensor (WIBS) using size-resolved biological and interfering particles

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Atmospheric particles of biological origin, also referred to as bioaerosols or primary biological aerosol particles (PBAP), are important to various human health and environmental systems. There has been a recent steep increase in the frequency of published studies utilizing commercial instrumentation based on ultraviolet laser/light-induced fluorescence (UV-LIF), such as the WIBS (wideband integrated bioaerosol sensor) or UV-APS (ultraviolet aerodynamic particle sizer), for bioaerosol detection both outdoors and in the built environment. Significant work over several decades supported the development of the general technologies, but efforts to systematically characterize the operation of new commercial sensors have remained lacking. Specifically, there have been gaps in the understanding of how different classes of biological and non-biological particles can influence the detection ability of LIF instrumentation. Here we present a systematic characterization of the WIBS-4A instrument using 69 types of aerosol materials, including a representative list of pollen, fungal spores, and bacteria as well as the most important groups of non-biological materials reported to exhibit interfering fluorescent properties. Broad separation can be seen between the biological and non-biological particles directly using the five WIBS output parameters and by taking advantage of the particle classification analysis introduced by Perring et al. (2015). We highlight the importance that particle size plays on observed fluorescence properties and thus in the Perring-style particle classification. We also discuss several particle analysis strategies, including the commonly used fluorescence threshold defined as the mean instrument background (forced trigger; FT) plus 3 standard deviations (σ ) of the measurement. Changing the particle fluorescence threshold was shown to have a significant impact on fluorescence fraction and particle type classification. We conclude that raising the fluorescence threshold from FT + 3σ to FT + 9σ does little to reduce the relative fraction of biological material considered fluorescent but can significantly reduce the interference from mineral dust and other non-biological aerosols. We discuss examples of highly fluorescent interfering particles, such as brown carbon, diesel soot, and cotton fibers, and how these may impact WIBS analysis and data interpretation in various indoor and outdoor environments. The performance of the particle asymmetry factor (AF) reported by the instrument was assessed across particle types as a function of particle size, and comments on the reliability of this parameter are given. A comprehensive online supplement is provided, which includes size distributions broken down by fluorescent particle type for all 69 aerosol materials and comparing threshold strategies. Lastly, the study was designed to propose analysis strategies that may be useful to the broader community of UV-LIF instrumentation users in order to promote deeper discussions about how best to continue i...

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Section: Broad Separation Of Particle Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic characterization and fluorescence threshold strategies for the wideband integrated bioaerosol sensor (WIBS) using size-resolved biological and interfering particles

et al. 2017

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“…The characteristics of airborne bacteria generated from WWTPs have been studied to some extent (Muller, 1980;Fannin et al, 1985;Laitinen et al, 1992;Sawyer et al, 1993;Ranalli et al, 2000;Goyer and Lavoie, 2001;Gangamma et al, 2011;Li et al, 2013;Guo et al, 2014;Li et al, 2016). It was found that the concentration of bacterial aerosols can be higher in pretreatment than in an activated sludge tank.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Small-Size Suspended Solids on the Emission of Escherichia coli from the Aeration Process of Wastewater Treatment

Lin

Chiang

Lin

et al. 2016

Aerosol Air Qual. Res.

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The concentrations of bioaerosols near pretreatment facilities are often higher than those near activated-sludge aeration tanks in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). The reason for this difference is not yet clear and the differences between the characteristics of suspended solids (SS) in these two processes might play a critical role. In this study, a lab-scale wastewater treatment system was tested with Escherichia coli (E. coli) in order to investigate the effects of the type and concentration of SS on the concentration and size distribution of emitted bioaerosols. Two types of SS, activated sludge from a hospital WWTP and kaolin clay, were selected to represent floc-type mixed-liquor SS (MLSS) and non-floc-type SS, respectively. An Andersen six-stage sampler was used to analyze the size distribution of the airborne E. coli aerosols. When the tested aeration rate was as low as 0.5 L min -1 , it was found that the presence of bioaerosols slightly decreased in air/water ratio (AWR, CFU m -3 air/CFU 100 mL -1 water) when the SS increased from 500 to 2000 mg L -1 for both floc and non-floc SS. However when the aeration rates went up to 5-15 L min -1 , the pattern of AWR vs. SS curve was different with an increase trend for non-floc SS and a decrease trend for floc SS, with an exception of increase trend for floc SS as the MLSS increased from 0 to 500 mg L -1 . The major sizes of emitted bioaerosols ranged from 0.65 to 1.1 µm. A peak was observed at an aerodynamic diameter greater than 7 µm when the aeration rate was 15 L min -1 . In conclusion, floc-type activated sludge can inhibit the emission of E. coli from an aeration tank. In contrast, the non-floc-type small-size kaolin clay can enhance the emission of E. coli from the pretreatment process.

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“…Experiment concerning investigation of bioaerosols emitted in WWTP in Beijing, China, revealed that there are differences in concentration levels between particular stages of treatment plant (near sludge thickening basin detected highest level of culturable bacterial and fungal aerosols). Indicated also the occurrence of the potentially antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains (Li et al 2016). There is also a seasonal variability in bioaerosol concentrations collected in different seasons, similarly to the environmental conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics of airborne bacteria and fungi in some Polish wastewater treatment plants

Kowalski

Wolany

Pastuszka

et al. 2017

Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol.

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The aim of this study was to characterize both the viable airborne bacteria and fungi collected in different types of wastewater treatment plants in Poland. Bacterial and fungal aerosols in five different wastewater treatment plants in Poland were studied, including the pioneering antibiotic resistance testing of airborne bacteria. Concentration level was measured using the six-stage Andersen impactor. After incubation, bioaerosol particles captured on nutrient media on Petri dishes were quantitatively evaluated and qualitatively identified. It was found that the concentration levels of both airborne bacteria and fungi ranged from 10 2 to 10 3 colony-forming units/m 3 , in all stages of the wastewater treatment plants. The patterns of size distributions of airborne bacteria and fungi were very similar, showing dominant peaks typically in the size range between 3.3 and 4.7 lm. The majority fraction of small bacterial and fungal particles (less than 4.7 lm) in the studied areas indicates that the bioaerosol is relatively fresh, and mostly of local origin. The Gram-positive cocci and nonsporing Gram-positive rods were the dominating forms in the studied wastewater treatment plants environment. The existing differences in the concentration levels between sampling sites enabled identification of the main bioaerosol sources. The highest concentration of bacterial aerosol appeared in sections, where activated sludge postprocessing and mechanical purifying are conducted. The most frequently occurring species in the sampled bacterial aerosol were Gram-positive cocci and nonsporing Grampositive rods. Multi-antibiotic resistance testing showed that among the isolated airborne bacteria, the most antibiotic-resistant features were present among Bacillus species (especially Bacillus mycoides).

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Bioaerosol emissions and detection of airborne antibiotic resistance genes from a wastewater treatment plant

Cited by 156 publications

References 47 publications

Systematic characterization and fluorescence threshold strategies for the wideband integrated bioaerosol sensor (WIBS) using size-resolved biological and interfering particles

Systematic characterization and fluorescence threshold strategies for the wideband integrated bioaerosol sensor (WIBS) using size-resolved biological and interfering particles

Effects of Small-Size Suspended Solids on the Emission of Escherichia coli from the Aeration Process of Wastewater Treatment

Characteristics of airborne bacteria and fungi in some Polish wastewater treatment plants

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