Capturing the Aerobiome

New HELTH Study: Capturing the Aerobiome: Application of Polyurethane Foam Disk Passive Samplers for Bioaerosol Monitoring

What is in the air? But not chemicals this time!!! Monitoring bioaerosols using passive air samplers. A team of researchers led by Egide Kalisa, Amandeep Saini, Kevin Lee, Jacob Mastin, Jasmin K. Schuster and Tom Harner recently published an article entitled: “Capturing the Aerobiome: Application of Polyurethane Foam Disk Passive Samplers for Bioaerosol Monitoring.”

Due to inhalation exposure, bioaerosols are ubiquitous and play a significant role in global climate and human health. As a complementary method to active sampling using pumps, passive air sampling of bioaerosols is increasingly valued due to its simplicity, electricity-free operations, and cost-effectiveness in providing time-integrated samples over weeks/months. In this study, polyurethane foam disk passive air samplers (PUF-PAS), passive dry deposition air samplers (PAS-DDs), and active high-volume (Hi-Vol) air samplers were deployed in Toronto and the Athabasca oil sands region (OSR) in the first stages of a proof-of-concept exercise for bioaerosols. Airborne bacterial and fungal communities were characterized using MiSeq DNA sequencing. All sampler types were shown to collect bioaerosols successfully. The dominant bacterial and fungal species observed by all samplers were qualitatively similar. Species richness and community structure of the airborne bacterial and fungal communities varied with sites and seasons. Principal coordination analysis indicated bacterial and fungal communities differed between Toronto and OSR. 

Citation: Kalisa, E., Saini, A., Lee, K., Mastin, J., Schuster, J. K., & Harner, T. (2024). Capturing the Aerobiome: Application of Polyurethane Foam Disk Passive Samplers for Bioaerosol Monitoring. ACS ES&T Air. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsestair.3c00107