PreMiEr Seminar Series: Dr. Alex McCumber

PreMiEr-sponsored seminar hosted by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Speaker: Alex McCumber, Postdoctoral Research Associate

Abstract: Evaluation of Sink Bioaerosols

Sinks are ubiquitous in modern buildings and serve an important role in reducing the transmission of diseases via hand washing. In settings where someone may encounter at risk individuals, such as hospitals, sinks are placed in nearly every room to ensure proper hand hygiene adherence. However, the p-traps beneath sinks are well documented to harbor multidrug resistant pathogens and operate as a source of bioaerosol emissions and exposure to a highly vulnerable patient population. In 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a weekly report describing an outbreak of Carbapenemase-Producing Carbapenem-Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections that were traced to the p-trap in the hospital room. Due to the continued risk between sink bioaerosols and infections in high-risk settings, factors that affect bioaerosol generation, fate, and transport warrant further exploration. This project is designed to take initial steps towards answering these questions and provide standardized techniques for future projects within the Center. The overarching goal of this project is to quantify the risk associated with sink bioaerosols and identify engineering or microbiological based controls that ameliorate or eliminate bioaerosol threats. Experiments are accompanied by modeling to aid prediction and identification of engineering solutions to manage p-trap bioaerosol generation. Possibilities include changes to the geometry of the sink or trap, as well as microbiological-based controls such as p-trap probiotics that mitigate the proliferation of harmful p-trap bacteria.

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