METHOD

Performance of the original workstation for aerosol tests under controlled conditions

About authors

1 Translational Biomedicine Laboratory,
N. F. Gamaleya Federal Research Centre for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow

2 ZAO Laminar Systems, Miass, Chelyabinsk oblast

3 Laboratory of Population Variability Mechanisms in Pathogenic Microorganisms,
N. F. Gamaleya Federal Research Centre for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow

4 Department of Virology, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow

Correspondence should be addressed: Denis A. Kleymenov
Gamalei 18, Moscow, 123098; ur.relbmar@tel00001, gro.ayelamag@vonemyelk.a.sined

About paper

Funding: this work was supported by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation as part of the project The National System for Chemical and Biological Security of the Russian Federation (2015-2020) and by the Ministry of Education and Science as part of the project RFMEFI60117X0018.

Received: 2018-08-06 Accepted: 2018-08-31 Published online: 2018-10-17
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Air quality monitoring is essential when it comes to protecting the urban population, especially that of big metropolises, from biohazards including biopathogens (BPs). This process is aided by different samplers and analyzers of aerosol pollutants, filters and disinfection systems. Their performance is tested using experimental aerosol formulations with a predetermined composition. Unfortunately, the majority of such systems available in Russia are only able to process a few hundred liters of air per time unit, which is too little. Big aerosol chambers (10 to 20 m3) are very expensive and may not fit into a lab, necessitating an extensive overhaul. In this work we present a workstation for the detection of BP markers under controlled conditions based on the microbiological safety box MSB-III-Laminar-C-1.5 (380.150.01) that was originally designed to test the performance of samplers and analyzers of experimental aerosol formulations. Our workstation can handle the majority of BSL-1-2 BPs and, given the chamber volume that satisfies the requirements of aerosol experiments (> 4 m3), can be installed in a lab with an area of >10 m2.

Keywords: infection, aerosol, aerosol sampling, aerosol chamber

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