An Investigation of Airborne Bioaerosols and Endotoxins Present in Indoor Traditional Wet Markets before and after Operation in Taiwan: A Case Study

Da-Jiun Wei, Wen-Te Liu, Huin-Tsung Chin, Ching-Hsing Lin, I-Chun Chen and Yi-Tang Chang
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Da-Jiun Wei: Department of Microbiology, Soochow University, Taipei 11102, Taiwan
Wen-Te Liu: Department of Tourism, Tungnan University, New Taipei City 22202, Taiwan
Huin-Tsung Chin: The Graduate School of Technology for Hazards Mitigation, Tungnan University, New Taipei City 22202, Taiwan
Ching-Hsing Lin: Center of General Education, National Taitung College, Taitung 95045, Taiwan
I-Chun Chen: Department of Land Resources, Chinese Culture University, Taipei 11114, Taiwan
Yi-Tang Chang: Department of Microbiology, Soochow University, Taipei 11102, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-21

Abstract: Customers in Taiwan prefer to purchase fresh foods and household supplies at indoor traditional wet markets (TWMs). The health risk to indoor TWM staff exposed to bioaerosols needs to be evaluated, since these workers spend long periods of time in the market for stall preparation, selling, and stall cleaning. This study investigated the bioaerosols present in two indoor TWMs. The results showed that the cleaning process at Market A after operations, involving the use of an agitated waterspout, was able to decrease the concentration of bacterial bioaerosols (BBs) by an average of 64%, while at the same time increasing the concentration of fungal bioaerosols (FBs) by about 2.4 fold. The chemical sanitization process at Market B after operations was able to bring about average decreases of 30.8% in BBs and 19.2% in FBs, but the endotoxin concentration increased. Hotspots were found to be associated with vendors of fresh, live poultry and fresh, raw meat/seafood. Pseudomonas spp. and Clostridium perfringens , both of which can be pathogenic, were found to be the dominant species present in these markets, making up 35.18% to 48.74% and 9.64% to 11.72% of the bacteria present, respectively. Our results provide fundamental information on the distributions of bioaerosols and endotoxins within indoor TWMs both before and after operation.

Keywords: indoor traditional wet market; bacterial bioaerosols; fungal bioaerosols; chemical sanitization; endotoxin (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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