Bioaerosol emissions from wastewater treatment process at urban environment and potential health impacts.

The inlet of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) contains pathogenic microorganisms which during aeration and by mechanical mixing through wind typically aerosolized microbes into ambient air. Bioaerosol emission and its characterization (bacterial and fungal) was investigated considering low-flow and high-flow inlet of wastewater treatment plant. Generation of bioaerosols was found influenced by prevailing seasons while both during summer and winter, fungal concentration (winter: 1406 ± 517; summer: 1743 ± 271 CFU/m) was higher compared to bacterial concentration (winter: 1077 ± 460; summer: 1415 ± 588 CFU/m).

How dominant the load of bioaerosols in PM and PM: a comprehensive study in the IGP during winter.

The winter period is most ideal for studying near-surface aerosols in the Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP) of India, since this period is inundated with significantly higher concentrations of aerosols across the unique geographical domain because of shallow atmospheric boundary layer. This study focuses on analysing the concentration of the biotic component of aerosols (bioaerosols) in a central location of the IGP and estimating their dominance in ambient particulate matter (PM) from 2021 to 2023. Observations showed that bioaerosol concentrations also increased significantly with the increasing concentrations of PM and PM, suggesting that bioaerosols are a dominant component of the total aerosol load in the atmosphere.