Jung, Jae Hee Lee, Jung Eun Kim, Sang Soo 2024-01-20T21:01:49Z 2024-01-20T21:01:49Z 2022-01-25 2009-08 0048-9697 https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/132245 Exposure to bacterial bioaerosols can have adverse effects on health, such as infectious diseases, acute toxic effects, and allergies. The search for ways of preventing and curing the harmful effects of bacterial bioaerosols has created a strong demand for the study and development of an efficient method of controlling bioaerosols. We investigated the thermal effects on bacterial bioaerosols of Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis by using a thermal electric heating system in continuous air flow. The bacterial bioaerosols were exposed to a surrounding temperature that ranged from 20 degrees C to 700 degrees C for about 0.3 s. Both E coli and B. subtilis vegetative cells were rendered more than 99.9% inactive at 160 degrees C and 350 degrees C of wall temperature of the quartz tube, respectively. Although the data on bacterial injury showed that the bacteria tended to sustain greater damage as the surrounding temperature increased, Gram-negative E coli was highly sensitive to structural injury but Gram-positive B. subtilis was slightly more sensitive to metabolic injury. In addition, the inactivation of E coli endotoxins was found to range from 9.2% (at 200 degrees C) to 82.0% (at 700 degrees C). However, the particle size distribution and morphology of both bacterial bioaerosols were maintained, despite exposure to a surrounding temperature of 700 degrees C. Our results show that thermal heating in a continuous air flow can be used with short exposure time to control bacterial bioaerosols by rendering the bacteria and endotoxins to a large extent inactive. This result could also be useful for developing more effective thermal treatment strategies for use in air purification or sterilization systems to control bioaerosols. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. English ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV Thermal effects on bacterial bioaerosols in continuous air flow Article 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2009.05.008 1 SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT, v.407, no.16, pp.4723 - 4730 SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 407 16 4723 4730 N scie scopus 000267839200022 2-s2.0-67349126944 Environmental Sciences Environmental Sciences & Ecology Article DRY-HEAT DESTRUCTION SHORT-TIME PASTEURIZATION SMALL CERAMIC HEATER ESCHERICHIA-COLI HIGH-TEMPERATURE ULTRAVIOLET-RADIATION RELATIVE HUMIDITY AIRBORNE BACTERIA DISTILLED WATER REAL-TIME Bacterial bioaerosols Thermal electric heating system Air sterilization Airborne bacterial endotoxin Relative recovery