Experimental measurements of the exposure to exhaled contaminants from different breathing modes
This experimental study analyses the contaminants exposure of a health worker (HW) to the contaminants exhaled by a lying patient (P) inside a hospital room using breathing thermal manikins. The two possible exhalation ways of P, though the nose (N) or through the mouth (M) are considered while HW a...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Data de publicação: | 2018 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia |
| Repositório: | e-spacio. Repositorio Institucional de la UNED |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:e-spacio.uned.es:20.500.14468/24829 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14468/24829 |
| Access Level: | Acceso aberto |
| Palavra-chave: | 33 Ciencias Tecnológicas::3313 Tecnología e ingeniería mecánicas hospital human breathing personal exposure exhalation airway breathing functions |
| Resumo: | This experimental study analyses the contaminants exposure of a health worker (HW) to the contaminants exhaled by a lying patient (P) inside a hospital room using breathing thermal manikins. The two possible exhalation ways of P, though the nose (N) or through the mouth (M) are considered while HW always inhales through its nose. In addition, two different respiration functions are tested for P breathing, one corresponding to a 1,8 m height and 80 kg weight male (H) and another corresponding to a 1,5 m height and 50 kg weight female (L). The room is ventilated using a mixing ventilation strategy with 6 ACH as ventilation rate. A tracer gas (R134A) is used to surrogate the contaminants emitted through P exhalation, being the only source of contaminants inside the room. Using field measurements data, the value of contaminant exposure () and the intake fraction () are obtained together with the peak concentration intensity and frequency as the indices to compare the different experimental combinations. Results are intended to be extrapolated, considering the limitations, to the possible exposition of HW to the pathogens released by P exhalation. |
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