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The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission

Speech droplets generated by asymptomatic carriers of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are increasingly considered to be a likely mode of disease transmission. Highly sensitive laser light scattering observations have revealed that loud speech can emit thousands of oral f...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Stadnytskyi, Valentyn, Bax, Christina E., Bax, Adriaan, Anfinrud, Philip
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7275719/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32404416
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2006874117
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author Stadnytskyi, Valentyn
Bax, Christina E.
Bax, Adriaan
Anfinrud, Philip
author_facet Stadnytskyi, Valentyn
Bax, Christina E.
Bax, Adriaan
Anfinrud, Philip
author_sort Stadnytskyi, Valentyn
collection PubMed
description Speech droplets generated by asymptomatic carriers of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are increasingly considered to be a likely mode of disease transmission. Highly sensitive laser light scattering observations have revealed that loud speech can emit thousands of oral fluid droplets per second. In a closed, stagnant air environment, they disappear from the window of view with time constants in the range of 8 to 14 min, which corresponds to droplet nuclei of ca. 4 μm diameter, or 12- to 21-μm droplets prior to dehydration. These observations confirm that there is a substantial probability that normal speaking causes airborne virus transmission in confined environments.
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spelling pubmed-72757192020-06-11 The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission Stadnytskyi, Valentyn Bax, Christina E. Bax, Adriaan Anfinrud, Philip Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Biological Sciences Speech droplets generated by asymptomatic carriers of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are increasingly considered to be a likely mode of disease transmission. Highly sensitive laser light scattering observations have revealed that loud speech can emit thousands of oral fluid droplets per second. In a closed, stagnant air environment, they disappear from the window of view with time constants in the range of 8 to 14 min, which corresponds to droplet nuclei of ca. 4 μm diameter, or 12- to 21-μm droplets prior to dehydration. These observations confirm that there is a substantial probability that normal speaking causes airborne virus transmission in confined environments. National Academy of Sciences 2020-06-02 2020-05-13 /pmc/articles/PMC7275719/ /pubmed/32404416 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2006874117 Text en Copyright © 2020 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Biological Sciences
Stadnytskyi, Valentyn
Bax, Christina E.
Bax, Adriaan
Anfinrud, Philip
The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission
title The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission
title_full The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission
title_fullStr The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission
title_full_unstemmed The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission
title_short The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission
title_sort airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in sars-cov-2 transmission
topic Biological Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7275719/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32404416
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2006874117
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