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Modeling Exposure
Published in Samuel C. Morris, Cancer Risk Assessment, 2020
Emissions from smoke stacks and wastewater outfalls can be measured and databases established which can be drawn upon for modeling. Some source terms, however, are difficult to quantify. Fugitive emissions, such as leaks from faulty valves or from cracks in processing vessels, are difficult to measure. Detailed atmospheric measurements within a plant site may form the basis for estimating fugitive emission rates. In some cases they may be sufficiently large that mass balance approaches may be useful.
Aerosol release, distribution, and prevention during aerosol therapy: a simulated model for infection control
Published in Drug Delivery, 2022
Marc Mac Giolla Eain, Ronan Cahill, Ronan MacLoughlin, Kevin Nolan
Flow visualization techniques such as Schlieren imaging, particle image velocimetry (PIV), and computational modeling are tools that can provide valuable insights into the behavior and dispersion distances of fugitive aerosols from the various aerosol therapy devices and patient interfaces. The use of such tools has shown that nebulizer air flow, lung function, and interface type all significantly impact upon the dispersion distance of fugitive emissions (Hui et al., 2007; Tang et al., 2009; Hui et al., 2015; Takazono et al., 2021). However, a limiting factor with these types of tools is the field of view, computational power, and lack of quantitative information on fugitive aerosol particle concentrations and size distributions. Instruments such as particle sizers provide this qualitative data on aerosol particle concentration, mass, and diameter; however, unless they are positioned in the correct location, the data captured may not be particularly relevant and potential fugitive aerosol hot spots missed. By using these measurement techniques in combination, the advantages of both mitigate the disadvantage of each individual technique. To date, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this has not been attempted previously.
Assessment of obstructive and restrictive patterns of lung function among the workers of brick kilns
Published in International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 2022
Occupational lung diseases have been more important to workers since ancient times [1]. Exposure to occupational organic dust and fumes causes respiratory diseases [2]. It is a well-known fact that organic dust affects the respiratory function of industrial workers. Inhalation of industrial dust for a long period of time causes dilated and fibrotic growth in the lungs [3]. The working environment of brick kilns is always saturated with dust and fumes [4], and contains various harmful noxious pollutants such as particulate matter [5], SO2, CO2 [6], CO [7], volatile organic compounds [8], SOx, COx [9], NOx [10] and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [11]. Moreover, chimney and fugitive emissions [12,13] are released from brick kilns during the different processes [14] such as firing [15], coal crushing [16,17], loading and unloading bricks [18] and removing ash from the trench [19,20].
An in vitro visual study of fugitive aerosols released during aerosol therapy to an invasively ventilated simulated patient
Published in Drug Delivery, 2021
Marc Mac Giolla Eain, Mary Joyce, Ronan MacLoughlin
Maintaining a closed pressurized circuit during mechanical ventilation is critical in ensuring the safe ventilation of a patient but also in preventing the release of fugitive medical and patient derived bioaerosol. Joyce et al. (2021) used an aerosol particle sizer (APS) to measure the patient derived bioaerosol released from a dual limb mechanically ventilated circuit during nebulizer refill with a VMN and JN. The authors found that there was a significant release of patient derived bioaerosol during refill of the JN, median above ambient levels 710 particles per cm3, while levels measured during refill of the VMN were similar to those measured during ambient conditions, median levels above ambient 0 particles per cm3. These quantitative measurements affirm the qualitative measurements presented in this piece of work. Of the few remaining studies that have examined fugitive emissions from invasive mechanically ventilated patients (Ari et al., 2016; O’Toole et al., 2020), these studies focused specifically on fugitive medical aerosol released into the environment during an aerosol treatment, no potential patient element was incorporated. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to visualize the release of aerosol, both patient derived and medical, into the environment during an aerosol treatment in a clinically representative, simulation of an intubated mechanically ventilated patient.