Particles from Respiratory Activities and Infection Spread

The ILAQH has been conducting extensive studies related to infection spread over many years, including responses to the current COVID-19 pandemic. The ILAQH’s work in this field has layed a foundation for the understanding of particles from respiratory activities and infection spread including, the:

size distribution and origin
mechanisms of breath from human expirated aerosols
burden of cough aerosols
droplet fate in indoor environments and the impact of room ventilation
risk of airborne infection transmission in indoor environments
use of face masks
airborne transmission and estimation of airborne viral emissions.

Publications

Journal Articles (Peer-Reviewed):

To view the complete list of publications on expiratory aerosols and infection spread

“Targeted reduction of airborne viral transmission risk in residential aged care”. Age and Ageing, Accepted 12 November 2022, In Press
“Increasing ventilation reduces SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission in schools: a retrospective cohort study in Italy’s Marche region”. Frontiers in Public Health, 10: 1087087, 2022
“A multinational Delphi consensus to end the COVID-19 public health threat”. Nature, 611: 332-345, 2022. The paper was accessed over 186,000 times and has an Altmetric score of 5360, making it number 630 of over 22.6 million outputs, and is part of the top 0.1% of all research output ever tracked.
“Healthy indoor air is our fundamental need: the time to act on this is now”. Medical Journal of Australia, 217(11): 578-581, 2022
“Age-sex differences in the global burden of lower respiratory infections and risk factors: results from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019”. The Lancet, 22: 1626-1647, 2022
“The physics of respiratory particle generation, fate in the air, and inhalation”. Nature Physics Reviews, 4: 723-734, 2022
“Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Exhaled Breath from COVID-19 Patients Ready for Hospital Discharge”. PrePrint medRxiv, 2022
“Influence of Indoor Airflow on Particle Spread of a Single Breath and Cough in Enclosures: Does Opening a Window Really ‘Help’?” Atmospheric Pollution Research,13(7): 101473, 2022
“What Were the Historical Reasons for the Resistance to Recognizing Airborne Transmission during the COVID-19 Pandemic?” Indoor Air, 32: e13070, 2022.
“Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 airborne Infection transmission risk in Public Buses”. Geosciences Frontiers, 101398, 2022
“Risk of SARS-CoV-2 in a car cabin assessed through 3D CFD simulations”. Indoor Air, 32: e13012, 2022
“Increased Close Proximity Airborne Transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant”. Science of the Total Environment, 816: 151499, 2022
“Link between SARS-CoV-2 emissions and airborne concentrations: closing the gap in understanding”. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 428: 128279, 2022
“Practical Indicators for Risk of Airborne Transmission in Shared Indoor Environments and their Application to COVID-19 Outbreaks”. Environmental Science & Technology, 56: 1125-1137, 2022.In the first week of its publication, the Altmetric score was the highest ever for any article published in ES&T out of 18,394 outputs. It is also the 2^nd “most read” article in the month of January 2022 the 4^th most read article from the previous 12 months (13/01/2022)
“Humidity-Dependent Survival of an Airborne Influenza A Virus: Practical Implications for Controlling Airborne Viruses”. Environmental Science &Technology Letters, 8(5): 412-418, 2021
“In situ measurements of human cough aerosol hygroscopicity”. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 18(178): 20210209, 2021
“A multiscale modeling method incorporating spatial coupling and temporal coupling into transient simulations of the human airways”. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids, 93(9): 2905-2920, 2021
“The Vaccination Threshold for SARS-CoV-2 Depends on the Indoor Setting and Room Ventilation”. BMC Infectious Diseases, 21: 1193, 2021
“Prevention of SARS‑CoV‑2 (COVID‑19) transmission in residential aged care using ultraviolet light (PETRA): a two‑arm crossover randomised controlled trial protocol”. BMC Infectious Diseases, 21: 967, 2021
“Respiratory infection risk-based model for estimating ventilation rates”. Building and Environment, 206: 108387, 2021
“Evaluating the Theoretical Background of STOFFENMANAGER® and the Advanced REACH Tool”. Annals of Work Exposures and Health, wxab057, 2021
“The Airborne Contagiousness of Respiratory Viruses: A Comparative Analysis and Implications for Mitigation”. Special Issue of Geoscience Frontiers on COVID-19, 101285: 2021
“The nexus between in-car aerosol concentrations, ventilation and the risk of respiratory infection”. Environment International, 157: 106814, 2021
“Close proximity risk assessment for SARS-CoV-2 infection” Science of the Total Environment, 794: 148749, 2021
“Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on air quality of Sri Lankan cities”. International Journal of Environmental Pollution and Remediation, 9: 12-21, 2021
“Predicting the effect of confinement on the COVID-19 spread using machine learning enriched with satellite air pollution observations”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 118(33): e2109098118, 2021
“Air pollution and COVID-19 – clearing the air and charting a post-pandemic course: a joint workshop report of ERS, ISEE, HEI and WHO”. European Respiratory Journal, 58(2): 2101063, 2021
“Ventilation procedures to minimize the airborne transmission of viruses at schools submitted”. Building and Environment, 202: 108042, 2021
“A paradigm shift to combat indoor respiratory infection”. Science, 372(6543): 689-691, 2021. In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric (14/05/2021)
“The physics of particle formation and deposition during breathing”. Nature Reviews Physics, 3: 300-301, 2021
“Susceptibility of an Airborne Common Cold Virus to Relative Humidity”. Environmental Science & Technology, 55(1): 499-508, 2021
“Dismantling myths on the airborne transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)” Journal of Hospital Infection, 110: 89-96, 2021. This paper is ranked in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric (14/01/2022)
“Global Air Quality and COVID-19 Pandemic: Do We Breathe Cleaner Air?” Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 21(4): 1-10, 2021
“A comparison of anaesthetic protective barriers for the management of COVID-19 paediatric patients”. Pediatric Anesthesia, 31(3): 323-329, 2021
“Daily CO₂emission reduction indicates the control of activities to contain COVID-19 in China”. The Innovation, 1(3): 100062, 2021
“Tracing surface and airborne SARS-CoV-2 RNA inside public buses and subway trains”. Environment International, 147: 106326, 2020
“Putting a balance on the aerosolization debate around SARS-CoV-2”. Journal of Hospital Infection, 105(3): 569-570, 2020
“Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by inhalation of respiratory aerosol in the Skagit Valley Chorale superspreading event”. Indoor Air, 31(2): 314-232, 2020
“Breath-, air- and surface-borne SARS-CoV-2 in hospitals” Journal of Aerosol Science, 152: 105693, 2021
“Quantitative assessment of the risk of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection: prospective and retrospective applications”. Environment International, 145: 106112, 2020
“COVID-19 patients in earlier stages exhaled millions of SARS-CoV-2 per hour”. Clinical Infectious Diseases, ciaa1283, 2020
“Evidence Review and Practice Recommendation on the Material, Design and Maintenance of Cloth Masks”. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness,14(5): e42-e46, 2020
“Reply to Chagla et al., and Thomas (re: It is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of COVID-19)”. Clinical Infectious Diseases, ciaa1118, 2020
“It is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of COVID-19”. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 71(9): 2311-2313, 2020
“Low exhaled breath droplet formation may explain why children are poor SARS-CoV-2 transmitters”. Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 20(7): 1513-1515, 2020
“How can airborne transmission of COVID-19 indoors be minimised?”, Environment International, 142: 105832, 2020
“Estimation of airborne viral emission: Quanta emission rate of SARS-CoV-2 for infection risk assessment”, Environment International, 141: 105794, 2020
“Airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2: the world should face the reality”, Environment International, 139: 105730, 2020. This was the most downloaded Environment International article for the month of May 2020. This paper is also ranked in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric (14/01/2022)
“Could Fighting Airborne Transmission be the Next Line of Defence against COVID-19 Spread?”, City and Environment Interactions, 4: 100033, 2019
“Face masks could raise pollution risks”, Nature Comment, 574: 29-30, 2019
“P174 High aerosol production of potentially infectious cough aerosols in people with cystic fibrosis during coughing”. Journal of Cystic Fibrosis, 18(1): S106-S107, 2019
“Indoor hospital air and the impact of ventilation on bioaerosols: a systematic review”, Journal of Hospital Infection, 103: 175-184, 2019
“Transmission of bacteria in bronchiectasis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: low burden of cough aerosols”, Respirology, 24(10): 980-987, 2019
“Face Masks and Cough Etiquette Reduce the Cough Aerosol Concentration of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in People with Cystic Fibrosis”, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 197(3): 348-355, 2018
“Face masks reduce the release of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cough aerosols when worn for clinically relevant time periods”, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 198(10), 1339-1342, 2018
“Cystic fibrosis pathogens survive for extended periods within cough generated droplet nuclei”, Thorax: thoraxjnl-2018
“Surgical space suits increase particle and microbiological emission rates in a simulated surgical environment”, The Journal of Arthroplasty, 33: 1526-1529, 2018
“Particle and Bioaerosol Characteristics in a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit”, Environmental International, 107: 89-99, 2017
“Sources and dynamics of fluorescent particles in hospitals”, Indoor Air, 27(5): 988-1000, 2017
“Population-level genomics identifies the emergence and global spread of a human transmissible multidrug-resistant nontuberculous mycobacterium”, Science, 354(6313): 751-757, 2016
“A novel method and its application to measuring pathogen decay in bioaerosols from patients with respiratory disease”, PLoS One, 11(7): e0158763. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0158763, 2016
“Environmental contamination and hospital acquired infection: factors that are easily overlooked”, Indoor Air, 25(5): 462-474, 2015
“Viability of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa in Cough Aerosols Generated by persons with Cystic Fibrosis”, Thorax, 69: 740-745, 2014
“The risk of airborne influenza transmission in passenger cars”, Epidemiology and Infection, 9: 1-5, 2011
“Room ventilation and the risk of airborne infection transmission in three health care settings within a large teaching hospital”, American Journal of Infection Control, 39: 866-872, 2011
“Modality of human expired aerosol size distributions”, Journal of Aerosol Science, 42: 839-851, 2011
“The Mechanism of Breath Aerosol Formation”, Journal of Aerosol Medicine and Pulmonary Drug Delivery, 22: 229-237, 2009
“Size distribution and sites of origin of droplets expelled during expiratory activities”, Journal of Aerosol Science, 40: 256-269, 2009
“Characterization of expiration air jets and droplet size distributions immediately at the mouth opening”, Journal of Aerosol Science, 40: 122 – 133, 2009
“Cough-generated Aerosols of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other Bacteria from Cystic Fibrosis Patients“. Thorax, 64: 926-931, 2009
“Droplet Fate in Indoor Environments, Or Can We Prevent the Spread of Infection”, Indoor Air, 16(5): 335-347, 2006
“New Personal Sampler for Viable Airborne Viruses: Feasibility Study”. Journal of Aerosol Science, 36(5-6): 609-617, 2005
“Real-time monitoring of viable bioaerosols: Capability of the UVAPS to predict the amount of individual microorganisms in aerosol particles”. Journal of Aerosol Science, 36(5-6): 665-676, 2005
“Inactivation of viruses in bubbling processes utilized for personal bioaerosol monitoring”. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 70(12): 6963-6967, 2004
“Monitoring of viable airborne SARS virus in ambient air”. Atmospheric Environment, 38(23): 3879-3884, 2004
“Performance evaluation of the UVAPS: Sensitivity to physiological age of airborne bacteria and effect of bacterial stress”. Journal of Aerosol Science, 34(12): 1711-1727, 2003
“Collection of airborne microorganisms into liquid by bubbling through porous medium”. Aerosol Science & Technology, 36: 502-509, 2002
“Development and evaluation of a new personal sampler for culturable airborne microorganisms”. Atmospheric Environment, 36: 889-898, 2002

Reports:

“Proposed Non-infectious Air Delivery Rates (NADR) for Reducing Exposure to Airborne Respiratory Infectious Diseases”. The Lancet COVID-19 Commission, Task Force on Safe Work, Safe School, and Safe Travel, November 2022.
“The First Four Healthy Building Strategies Every Building Should Pursue to Reduce Risk from COVID-19”. The Lancet COVID-19 Commission, Task Force on Safe Work, Safe School, and Safe Travel, July 2022
“Protecting children from COVID-19 and making schools and childcare safer”. OzSAGE, 1 October 2021
“Safe Indoor Air (Ventilation) Recommendations”. OzSAGE, 6 September 2021
“Designing infectious disease resilience into school buildings through improvements to ventilation and air cleaning”. The Lancet COVID-19 Commission, Task Force on Safe Work, Safe School, and Safe Travel, April 2021
“Building-related risk factors are a critical, but missing, component of SARS-CoV-2 outbreak investigations”. The Lancet COVID-19 Commission, Task Force on Safe Work, Safe School, and Safe Travel. March 2021
“Six Priority Areas”. The Lancet COVID-19 Commission, Task Force on Safe Work, Safe School, and Safe Travel, February 2021

Editorial Articles, Other Professional Publications:

“Ventilation reduces the risk of infection: why are we still ignoring it?” The Conversation, published online 1 December 2022
“A Consensus Statement on SARS-CoV-2 Aerosol Dynamics”, OSF PrePrints Consensus Statement, 2022
“Pandemic Preparedness – No jobs on a dead planet, no jobs in a sick society”. Australian Fabians Review, 3: 1-6, 2022
“Improving indoor ventilation: an overlooked COVID infection control strategy”. Croakey, 26 July 2021
“Australia must get serious about airborne infection transmission. Here’s what we need to do”. The Conversation, 26 July 2021
Morawska, L. and Marks, G.B. “More testing and surveillance needed for COVID-19”. Croaky, 24 March 2020

Conference Abstract/Items:

“Factors contributing to limited progress in IAQ management and how to change it: a review. Indoor Air 2022 Conference”, 17^th International Conference of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality & Climate, Kuopio, Finland, 12-16 June 2022
“COVID-19 indoor airborne transmission risk estimation based on practical risk indicators or CO₂ level”. AGU Fall Meeting 2021, New Orleans, USA, 13-17 December 2021