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Legionella pneumophila as a Health Hazard to Miners: A Pilot Study of Water Quality and QMRA

Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila), the causative agent of legionellosis, is an aquatic bacterium that grows in warm water. Humans are only presented with a health risk when aerosolized water containing L. pneumophila is inhaled. In mining operations, aerosolized water is used as dust control a...

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Autores principales: Madera-García, Valerie, Mraz, Alexis L., López-Gálvez, Nicolás, Weir, Mark H., Werner, James, Beamer, Paloma I., Verhougstraete, Marc P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6776080/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31583125
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w11081528
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author Madera-García, Valerie
Mraz, Alexis L.
López-Gálvez, Nicolás
Weir, Mark H.
Werner, James
Beamer, Paloma I.
Verhougstraete, Marc P.
author_facet Madera-García, Valerie
Mraz, Alexis L.
López-Gálvez, Nicolás
Weir, Mark H.
Werner, James
Beamer, Paloma I.
Verhougstraete, Marc P.
author_sort Madera-García, Valerie
collection PubMed
description Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila), the causative agent of legionellosis, is an aquatic bacterium that grows in warm water. Humans are only presented with a health risk when aerosolized water containing L. pneumophila is inhaled. In mining operations, aerosolized water is used as dust control and as part of the drilling operations, a currently ignored exposure route. This study characterized L. pneumophila concentrations in the mine’s non-potable water and the relationship between L. pneumophila and chlorine concentrations. These concentrations informed a quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) model to estimate the infection risk to miners exposed to aerosolized water containing L. pneumophila. Fourteen water samples were collected from seven locations at a mine and analyzed for temperature, pH, chlorine, and L. pneumophila serogroup. Most samples (93%) tested positive for L. pneumophila cells. The faucet from the sprinkler system on the adit level (entrance to the underground mine levels) showed the highest concentration of L. pneumophila (8.35 × 10(4) MPN/L). Disability adjusted life years (DALYs) were estimated in the QMRA model and showed that the risk for all miners was significantly lower (p < 0.0001) with the ventilation system on than when the system was off. Our study showed that the use of a ventilation system at the adit level of the mine reduced the risk of infection with aerosolized L. pneumophila.
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spelling pubmed-67760802019-10-03 Legionella pneumophila as a Health Hazard to Miners: A Pilot Study of Water Quality and QMRA Madera-García, Valerie Mraz, Alexis L. López-Gálvez, Nicolás Weir, Mark H. Werner, James Beamer, Paloma I. Verhougstraete, Marc P. Water (Basel) Article Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila), the causative agent of legionellosis, is an aquatic bacterium that grows in warm water. Humans are only presented with a health risk when aerosolized water containing L. pneumophila is inhaled. In mining operations, aerosolized water is used as dust control and as part of the drilling operations, a currently ignored exposure route. This study characterized L. pneumophila concentrations in the mine’s non-potable water and the relationship between L. pneumophila and chlorine concentrations. These concentrations informed a quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) model to estimate the infection risk to miners exposed to aerosolized water containing L. pneumophila. Fourteen water samples were collected from seven locations at a mine and analyzed for temperature, pH, chlorine, and L. pneumophila serogroup. Most samples (93%) tested positive for L. pneumophila cells. The faucet from the sprinkler system on the adit level (entrance to the underground mine levels) showed the highest concentration of L. pneumophila (8.35 × 10(4) MPN/L). Disability adjusted life years (DALYs) were estimated in the QMRA model and showed that the risk for all miners was significantly lower (p < 0.0001) with the ventilation system on than when the system was off. Our study showed that the use of a ventilation system at the adit level of the mine reduced the risk of infection with aerosolized L. pneumophila. 2019-07-24 2019-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6776080/ /pubmed/31583125 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w11081528 Text en Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Madera-García, Valerie
Mraz, Alexis L.
López-Gálvez, Nicolás
Weir, Mark H.
Werner, James
Beamer, Paloma I.
Verhougstraete, Marc P.
Legionella pneumophila as a Health Hazard to Miners: A Pilot Study of Water Quality and QMRA
title Legionella pneumophila as a Health Hazard to Miners: A Pilot Study of Water Quality and QMRA
title_full Legionella pneumophila as a Health Hazard to Miners: A Pilot Study of Water Quality and QMRA
title_fullStr Legionella pneumophila as a Health Hazard to Miners: A Pilot Study of Water Quality and QMRA
title_full_unstemmed Legionella pneumophila as a Health Hazard to Miners: A Pilot Study of Water Quality and QMRA
title_short Legionella pneumophila as a Health Hazard to Miners: A Pilot Study of Water Quality and QMRA
title_sort legionella pneumophila as a health hazard to miners: a pilot study of water quality and qmra
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6776080/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31583125
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w11081528
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