Abstract

The lack of necessary air pollution control measures in the construction of hospital wastewater treatment plants results in the release of harmful bioaerosols in and around the hospital. A sampling of airborne bacteria and fungi was performed using the gravitational method in 9 sites including an upwind site, intra-plant and outside a hospital wastewater treatment plants with activated sludge technology in Tehran (1, 5 and 3 points, respectively) from March to June. Bioaerosol on nutrient agar media were identified quantitatively and qualitatively. Intra-plant airborne particulate matter concentrations were measured by an optical particle sizer in intervals of 6 s for 60 min. The environmental parameters were also recorded in the sampling period. Experimental data was collected and analyzed by Excel software and SPSS statistical software version 23, respectively. This work is useful to help manage bioaerosols exposure risk such as WWTP.