Evaluation of Bioaerosol Bacterial Components of a Wastewater Treatment Plant Through an Integrate Approach and In Vivo Assessment

Abstract

Wastewater carries different pathogenic and non-pathogenic microorganisms that can be dispersed in the surrounding environment. Workers who frequent sewage treatment plants can therefore be exposed to aerosols that contain a high concentration of potentially dangerous biological agents, or they can come into direct contact with contaminated material. This can lead to allergies, infections and occupational health-associated diseases. A characterization of biological risk assessment of bioaerosol exposure is necessary. The aim of this study was to evaluate the application of an interdisciplinary method that combines chemical and biological approaches for the analysis of a bioaerosol derived from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) situated in Italy. Sampled filters were analyzed by HPLC-MS/MS spectroscopy that searched for different chemical biomarkers of airborne microorganisms. The analytical quantification was compared to the biological cultural method that revealed an underrated microbial concentration. Furthermore, next generation sequencing analysis was used also to identify the uncultivable species that were not detected by the culture dependent-method. Moreover, the simple animal model Caenorhabditis elegans was used to evaluate the pathogenicity of two isolates—Acinetobacter iwoffii and Micrococcus luteus—that showed multidrug-resistance. This work represents a starting point for the development of a multidisciplinary approach for the validation of bioaerosol exposure on WWTP workplaces.

Airborne Bacteria from Wastewater Treatment and their Antibiotic Resistance: A Meta-Analysis

“…Acinetobacter iwoffii showed a resistance profile against the antibiotics tetracycline, chloramphenicol, erythromycin, streptomycin, penicillin, vancomycin, among others. Micrococcus luteus was resistant to fosfomycin and aztreonam (Bruni et al, 2019).…”

“…Bioaerosols are atmospheric microparticles suspended or attached to dust or water droplets (Burdsall et al, 2021;Calero-Cáceres et al, 2019;Lou et al, 2021). They are composed of fungi, bacteria, viruses, pollen, plant debris, endotoxins, allergens and mycotoxins and originate in a wide variety of productive activities: markets, slaughter of animals, waste management, wastewater treatment; indoor activities in hospitals and laboratories (Bruni et al, 2019;Burdsall et al, 2021). Bioaerosols can be transported long distances due to their tiny size (1 to 100 nm), as well as environmental effects: temperature, humidity, wind speed, and molecular diffusion (Moran-Zuloaga et al, 2021; Yadav et al, 2020).…”

Analysis of Particulate and Microbiological Filtration Performance of Air Handling Unit Filters in a Low-Energy Office Building over 12 Months

“…To better understand exposure to the microbiological contaminants in indoor air, such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi, sampling is essential to identify and quantify them. Numerous studies focusing on exposure to microbial bioaerosols have been carried out on the air quality in hospitals, waste treatment plants, housing, and agricultural environments [4][5][6][7]. Fewer studies have focused, however, on office spaces in terms of employee exposure to these bioaerosols [8].…”

Estimating Lung Deposition of Fungal Spores Using Actual Airborne Spore Concentrations and Physiological Data

“…By pairing lung deposition models with real-world data on bioaerosol presence in our environments, including indoors, we could elucidate information on bioaerosol deposition in the respiratory tract, and that should help determine lung burden due to bioaerosol exposures leading to more accurate prediction of health effects caused by such exposures. Yet, despite numerous studies on bioaerosol presence in residential and occupational environments − and our understanding of health effects caused by bioaerosols, , few, if any attempts have been made to use that information to investigate the actual respiratory tract deposition of bioaerosol particles using environmental measurement data and the physiological data of the residents exposed to bioaerosol particles. This paper fills this knowledge gap and, to the best of our knowledge, is the first to use data of the observed indoor fungal spore concentrations and species in conjunction with the described BAIL and MPPD models to estimate human lung burden due to inhalation exposure to fungal spores, specifically their deposition in the respiratory system.…”