Seasonal size distribution of airborne culturable bacteria and fungi and preliminary estimation of their deposition in human lungs during non-haze and haze days

In recent years, haze events in Beijing have significantly increased in frequency. On haze days, airborne microorganisms are considered to be a potential risk factor for various health concerns. However, limited information on bioaerosols has prevented our proper understanding of the possible threat to human health due to these bioaerosols. In this study, we used a six-stage impactor for sampling culturable bioaerosols and the LUDEP 2.07 computer-based model for calculating their deposition on human lungs to investigate seasonal concentration, size distribution, and corresponding deposition efficiency and flux in the human respiratory tract during different haze-level events. The current results of the analysis of 398 samples over four seasons indicate that the concentration of culturable airborne bacteria decreased with increasing haze severity. The bioaerosol concentration ratio was skewed towards larger particle sizes on heavy haze days leading to larger bioaerosol aerodynamic diameters than on non-haze days. During nasal breathing by an adult male engaged in light exercise in an outdoor environment, the total deposition efficiency of culturable bioaerosols is 80–90% including approximately 70% in the upper respiratory tract, 5–7% in the alveoli, and about 3% in the bronchial couple with bronchiolar regions. Although the difference in culturable bioaerosol aerodynamic diameters at different haze levels was not large enough to cause obvious differences in lung deposition efficiency, the deposition fluxes clearly varied with the degree of haze owing to the varied concentration of culturable airborne bacteria and fungi. The results here could improve our understanding of the seasonal health threat due to culturable bioaerosols during non-haze and haze days.