Journal
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY INTERFACE
Volume 6, Issue -, Pages S703-S714Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2009.0388.focus
Keywords
droplets; talking; coughing; airborne infection
Categories
Funding
- Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China [HKU 7150/06]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Respiratory infections can be spread via 'contact' with droplets from expiratory activities such as talking, coughing and sneezing, and also from aerosol-generating clinical procedures. Droplet sizes predominately determine the times they can remain airborne, the possibility of spread of infectious diseases and thus the strategies for controlling the infections. While significant inconsistencies exist between the existing measured data on respiratory droplets generated during expiratory activities, a food dye was used in the mouth during measurements of large droplets, which made the expiratory activities 'unnatural'.. We carried out a, series of experiments using glass slides and a microscope as well as an aerosol spectrometer to measure the number and size of respiratory droplets produced from the mouth of healthy individuals during talking and coughing with and without a food dye. The total mass of respiratory droplets was measured using a mask, plastic bag with tissue and an electronic balance with a high precision. Considerable subject variability was observed and the average size of droplets captured using glass slides and microscope was about 50-100 mu m. Smaller droplets were also detected by the aerosol spectrometer. More droplets seemed to be generated when a food dye was used.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available