Introduction to the A&WMA 2023 Critical Review: Environmental sampling for disease surveillance: Recent advances and recommendations for best practice.

Abstract

Roya Mortazavi The important role of bioaerosols in both human health and in atmospheric sciences has been highlighted by many worldwide incidences that occurred in the last two decades. The global incidence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003, China, (Zhong et al. 2003), H1N1 influenza epidemic in 2009, Mexico, and California (USA) (Van Kerkhove et al. 2011), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2013, Saudia Arabia (Hageman 2020), the 2019 pandemic Covid-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, China (Rothan and Byrareddy 2020), and the ongoing threat of bio-terror attack by the deliberate release of agents such as anthrax or smallpox (Taylor, Lai, and Nasir 2012), further emphasize the necessity of having a more holistic critical views on the significance of bioaerosols. It calls for the fundamental, coherent, and standardized research toward execution of the role of bioaerosols, including its interactions with other molecules, exposure, and its mechanism of action. Bioaerosols are simply defined as biological airborne particles that are temporally and spatially directly released into the atmosphere from all types of environments, including soil, freshwater, and oceans. They may originate from plants, animals, or microorganism (live/ dead bacteria, fungi and viruses) or comprise their byproducts such as fungal spores, plant pollen, various fragments and excretions (Humbal, Gautam, and Trivedi 2018). The complexity, and diversity of bioaerosols composition/shapes are also reflected into its size, which range from 0.001 to 100 μm (Kim, Kabir, and Jahan 2018). Bioaerosols form a complex mixture of particulate matter (PM) with chemical aerosols (e.g., inorganic and organic components) (Jahne et al. 2015) which impact the atmospheric chemistry and physics. They can influence the global climate system and precipitation through different mechanisms such as scattering and absorbing radiation (Després et al. 2012), cloud micro physical processes by acting as ice nuclei (Vali et al. 1976), and cloud condensation nuclei (FröhlichNowoisky et al. 2016). The dispersion and transport of bioaerosols through atmospheric long distances movement (Maki et al. 2019; Meola, Lazzaro, and Zeyer 2015; Peter et al. 2014) also generate an increase in diversity of genetic poll with the potential of the evolvement and alteration of the ecosystem’s dynamic (Burrows et al. 2009). The spread and exposure to airborne pathogen may have adverse impact on agriculture and human public health (Humbal, Gautam, and Trivedi 2018). The main categories of diseases associated with exposure to bioaerosols are: i) acute toxic effects, ii) infectious diseases, iii) respiratory diseases, and iv) cancer. Respiratory inflammation and sensitivities (i.e., asthma) are triggered and developed upon exposure to the microbial and their cellular components (e.g., pollen and fungal allergens and lipopolysaccharide) (Beck, Young, and Huffnagle 2012; Rohr et al. 2015), microorganism-derived molecules (endotoxins, membrane lipopolysaccharides shed by Gram-negative bacteria) and fungal mycotoxins (Braun-Fahrländer et al. 2002; Jie et al. 2011). Exposure to bioaerosols occurs in indoor environment as well as in diverse industrial occupational activities such as waste sorting, composting, and recycling industry (Van Tongeren, Van Amelsvoort, and Heederik 1997; Wikuats et al. 2020); detergent industry (Schweigert, Mackenzie, and Sarlo 2000); agricultural and food processing activities (Sandiford, Tee, and Taylor 1994); and in the livestock industry. In accord to high level exposure, elevated prevalence of respiratory symptoms and airway inflammation have been documented in industrial workers (Papageorgiou et al.