Bioaerosolization and pathogen transmission in wastewater treatment plants: Microbial composition, emission rate, factors affecting and control measures

Environmental consequences during wastewater management are vital and getting increased attention to interrupt any possible disease transmission pathways. Evidence of bioaerosolization of pathogen from waste-water to atmosphere during wastewater treatment have been highlighted previously. Understanding aerosol -based transmission in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is important because of the hazard it presents to the workers involved or to the population around and appears to be very significant during pandemic occur-rences. This work aims to evaluate the possibility of pathogenic content of wastewater getting aerosolized during treatment by synthesizing the evidence on the potential aerosol generating treatment phases of WWTP, bio-aerosol microbial composition, emission load and the factors affecting the bioaerosol formation. We also present some potential control strategies to take up in WWTP which may be useful to avoid such occurrences. Imple-mentation of Aeration based strategies (use of diffused, submerged aeration, reduction in aeration rate), Improved ventilation based strategies (effective ventilation with adequate supply of clean air, minimizing air recirculation, supplementation with infection control measures such as filtration, irradiation), Improved protection based strategy (periodic monitoring of disinfection efficiency, pathogenic load of wastewater, improved operation policy) and other strategies (provision of buffer zone, wind shielding, water spraying on aerosol, screened surface of treatment units) could be very much relevant and significant in case of disease outbreak through aerosol formation in wastewater environment. Recent progress in sensor-based data collection, analysis, cloud-based storage, and early warning techniques in WWTP may help to reduce the risk of infectious transmission, espe-cially during a pandemic situation.