Researchers recently developed a passive air sampler clip that can assess personal exposure to the COVID-19 virus.
Masks, ventilation, proper hygiene, and social distancing can help in reducing the spread of COVID-19 in public places. However, researchers have identified airborne SARS-CoV-2 in indoor backgrounds even with such measures, a EurekAlert! report specified.
The newly invented device could benefit people working in high-risk environments like health care facilities and restaurants.
Essentially, COVID-19 is mainly spread through the inhalation of virus-laden aerosols, as well as respiratory droplets that infected people expel through sneezing, breathing, speaking or coughing.
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Wearable Passive Air Sampler
In the study published in ACS's Environmental Science & Technology Letters, researchers used active air sampling tools to identify SARS-CoV-1 in indoor environments. Nevertheless, these monitors are usually massive, costly, non-portable, and need electricity.
To better understand the individual's exposure to COVID-19, Krystal Pollitt and colleagues wanted to devise a small, lightweight and affordable tool that can be worn without a power source.
The study authors developed a wearable passive air sampler called the FreshAir Clip, that constantly absorbs virus-laden aerosols on a PDMS or polydimethylsiloxane surface.
The researchers tested the air sampler in a rotating drum, in which they produce aerosols that contain a replacement virus, a bacteriophage that has similar properties to the COVID-19 virus.
Detecting Personal Exposure to COVID-19
They discovered coronavirus on the PDMS sampler using the PCR polymerase chain reaction, showing that the air sampler could be used to dependably approximate concentrations of airborne viruses.
Afterward, the researchers distributed FreshAir Clips to more than 60 volunteers who wore the monitors for five consecutive days.
PCR analysis of the clips identified SARS-CoV-2 RNA in five clips. Four of them were worn by servers in restaurants, and one by a "homeless shelter staff person."
The highest loads of the virus, with over 100 RNA copies of each clip, were discovered in two badges from restaurant servers.
The FreshAir Clip may not have been commercialized yet, but such results specify that it could function as a "semiquantitative screening tool" for examining one's exposure to SARS-CoV-2 infection, not to mention, help determine high-risk areas of indoor exposure, reported the researchers.
The Ability to Catch Airborne Virus Investigated
A Yale News report in March 2021 described the device as a "small, silicone passive sampler" with the ability to pick up aerosolized viral particles, not to mention be examined in a laboratory background to discern exposure levels to SARS-CoV-2.
The Pollitt lab has been investigating the efficacy of FreshAir Clip in catching the airborne virus by signing up health care workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital to use the wearable device.
Researchers are currently looking to expand testing enrollment to participants from Connecticut communities with the highest prevalence of COVID-19.
According to Jordan Peccia, a professor of chemical and environmental engineering, the most ideal way to know if a person is exposed to a virus is to "put a personal sampler on them." From there, researchers can attempt to discover the particular virus of interest.
He added, the problem is that personal samplers are both heavy and difficult to wear. Typically, they involve a sampler, a tube that leads to a pump, and then a pump that has batteries.
Related information about active air sampling is shown on AEMTEK Laboratories' YouTube video below:
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