Assessment of fate of respiratory droplets and effectiveness of different air cleaners during outpatient consultation

IF 12.2 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENGINEERING, ENVIRONMENTAL

Journal of Hazardous Materials Pub Date : 2025-02-12 DOI:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2025.137601

Haiyang Liu , Zhijian Liu , Guangpeng Yao , Zhijian Dong , Chuan Jiang , Jingwei Liu , Rui Rong , Junzhou He , Chenxing Hu , Shiyue Li , Zhenyu Liang

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Abstract

Outpatient departments are open daily to receive patients for consultation. Physicians face a potential risk of infection when diagnosing patients with respiratory infections. This study investigated the fate of droplets exhaled by patient speaking during consultation in a hospital consulting room (CR) using numerical simulations. The accuracy of the numerical methods was verified by on-site bioaerosol dispersion experimental data. Three relative positions (RPs) with various distances between the physician and the patient were considered according to diagnostic needs. Further, the effectiveness of four types of air cleaners was explored. The results showed that the RP significantly affected the fate of the overall droplets in the CR. More than 60 % of the deposited droplets were on floors and tables. In the RP 3 case (0.6 m physician-patient distance), the physician inhaled 11.1 and 13.1 times more viral copies than in the RP 1 and RP 2 cases (1.2 m), respectively. For the droplets deposited on physician's surfaces, they were 8.1 and 5.4 times higher, respectively. The results also showed that regardless of RP, the ceiling-mounted AC was the most effective among the four types of ACs in reducing the droplet number in the CR and virus dose inhaled by the physician.

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来源期刊

Journal of Hazardous Materials 工程技术-工程：环境

CiteScore

25.40

自引率

5.90%

发文量

3059

审稿时长

58 days

期刊介绍： The Journal of Hazardous Materials serves as a global platform for promoting cutting-edge research in the field of Environmental Science and Engineering. Our publication features a wide range of articles, including full-length research papers, review articles, and perspectives, with the aim of enhancing our understanding of the dangers and risks associated with various materials concerning public health and the environment. It is important to note that the term "environmental contaminants" refers specifically to substances that pose hazardous effects through contamination, while excluding those that do not have such impacts on the environment or human health. Moreover, we emphasize the distinction between wastes and hazardous materials in order to provide further clarity on the scope of the journal. We have a keen interest in exploring specific compounds and microbial agents that have adverse effects on the environment.