The lack of information on biological risks in workplaces arises from the difficulty to measure bioaerosol. This study aimed to develop and improve the bioaerosol monitoring technique that uses proper biomarkers as a tool. Muramic and dipicolinic acids, and ergosterol were used as tracers for bacteria cells, bacterial spores, and fungal spores, respectively. Furthermore, 12- and 13-methyltetradecanoic acids (iso- and anteiso- C15:0) were used to study the presence of airborne bacteria and 3-hydroxy fatty acids were used to determine the concentration of peptidoglycan. Airborne particulate matter was sampled in a municipal indoor waste composting facility by multistage impactor samplers, during three main stages of composting process. The microorganism content, in airborne particles with aerodynamic diameter minor then 1 μm and between 1 and 10 μm, was determined starting from the aforementioned biomarker concentrations. For iso- and anteiso- C15:0, a conversion factor to transform its concentration into bacterial content was tentatively proposed. The results show that the chemical method covers some gaps in the information about bioaerosol presence in polluted atmospheres. Differences up to two orders of magnitude are observed, by comparing the results obtained by biomarkers and by cultivation-dependent methods. The microbial content, expressed as a percentage by mass on respect the PM, ranged from 4 to 28% with higher percentages during shredding and mixing stages and lower values during biocell opening operations. Bacterial spores, bacterial cells, and fungal spores detected were high in number, compared with the findings in similar studies elsewhere.

中文翻译：

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根据与堆肥厂中大小分离的气溶胶相关的化学示踪剂计算出的细菌以及细菌和真菌孢子的浓度

由于难以测量生物气溶胶，因此缺乏有关工作场所生物风险的信息。本研究旨在开发和改进使用适当生物标志物作为工具的生物气溶胶监测技术。胞壁酸和吡啶二羧酸以及麦角甾醇分别用作细菌细胞、细菌孢子和真菌孢子的示踪剂。此外，使用 12- 和 13- 甲基十四烷酸（异和反异 C15:0）来研究空气传播细菌的存在，并使用 3-羟基脂肪酸来确定肽聚糖的浓度。在堆肥过程的三个主要阶段，通过多级冲击采样器在市政室内垃圾堆肥设施中对空气中的颗粒物进行采样。空气动力学直径小于 1 μm 和介于 1 和 10 μm 之间的空气传播颗粒中的微生物含量，从上述生物标志物浓度开始确定。对于iso-和antiiso-C15:0，初步提出了将其浓度转换为细菌含量的转换因子。结果表明，化学方法弥补了污染大气中生物气溶胶存在信息的一些空白。通过比较生物标志物和培养相关方法获得的结果，观察到高达两个数量级的差异。微生物含量以相对于 PM 的质量百分比表示，范围为 4% 至 28%，在切碎和混合阶段的百分比较高，而在生物细胞打开操作期间的值较低。与其他地方类似研究的结果相比，检测到的细菌孢子、细菌细胞和真菌孢子数量较多。