Assessment of airborne bacterial bioaerosols in a textile industry

IBioaerosols are usually defined as aerosols or particles with microbial, plant or animal origin. Textile industries are of the working environments in witch workers are exposed to bioaerosols. In textile industry, the highest contamination concentration is the belonged to carding step. Since, textile industry in iran is native and a large number of employers are working in this industry, this study was undertaken to assess bacterial bioaerosols concentration in a textile in industry in iran. In cross-sectional study was done in different units and also outdoor environment of a cotton textile plant. The concentration of bioaerosols were sampled and measured according 0800 method presented by NIOSH, during summer. Diagnosis of type of colonies and bactories, grown on blood agar, was done using gram staining. The mean bioaerosols concentration obtained the highest and lowest values in outdoor environment (94±9.5 CFU/m3) and unit 2 (Ring site) (64±18.0 CFU/m3), respectively. The mean difference of bioaerosols concentration in unit 1 (Carding sites) and unit 2 (Ring site), was statistically significant in this study. The highest number of bioaerosols colony was for staphylococcus Epiderms (N=1743) and the lowest number was for streptococcus pneumonia (N=64) in the whole plant. Although the bioaerosols concentration obtained in the present study is lower than those reported in other studies, these values are above the threshold recommended.