1. Aerosol Generation by Modern Flush Toilets
- Author
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Deborah V. L. Hirst, Charles E. Marshall, David L. Johnson, Robert A. Lynch, and Kenneth R. Mead
- Subjects
Toilet ,Chemistry ,Analytical chemistry ,Environmental pollution ,Nanotechnology ,complex mixtures ,Pollution ,Article ,Aerosol ,Plume ,Particle ,Environmental Chemistry ,Seeding ,General Materials Science ,Particle size ,Aerosolization - Abstract
A microbe-contaminated toilet will produce bioaerosols when flushed. We assessed toilet plume aerosol from high efficiency (HET), pressure-assisted high efficiency (PAT), and flushometer (FOM) toilets with similar bowl water and flush volumes. Total and droplet nuclei “bioaerosols” were assessed. Monodisperse 0.25–1.9-μm fluorescent microspheres served as microbe surrogates in separate trials in a mockup 5 m3 water closet (WC). Bowl water seeding was approximately 1012 particles/mL. Droplet nuclei were sampled onto 0.2-μm pore size mixed cellulose ester filters beginning 15 min after the flush using open-face cassettes mounted on the WC walls. Pre- and postflush bowl water concentrations were measured. Filter particle counts were analyzed via fluorescent microscopy. Bowl headspace droplet count size distributions were bimodal and similar for all toilet types and flush conditions, with 95% of droplets 99%
- Published
- 2013
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