Aerosol tracer testing in Boeing 767 and 777 aircraft to simulate exposure potential of infectious aerosol such as SARS-CoV-2.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reintroduced questions regarding the potential risk of SARS-CoV-2 exposure amongst passengers on an aircraft. Quantifying risk with computational fluid dynamics models or contact tracing methods alone is challenging, as experimental results for inflight biological aerosols is lacking. Using fluorescent aerosol tracers and real time optical sensors, coupled with DNA-tagged tracers for aerosol deposition, we executed ground and inflight testing on Boeing 767 and 777 airframes.

Analysis of Bacillus globigii spores by CE.

It is imperative in today's world that harmful airborne or solution-based microbes can be detected quickly and efficiently. Bacillus globigii (Bg) spores are used as a simulant for Bacillus anthracis (Ba) due to their similar shape, size, and cellular makeup. The utility of CE to separate and detect low levels of Bg spore concentrations will be evaluated.