Sampling performance of impactors for bacterial bioaerosols

Impactor is more commonly used than impinger and filter for bioaerosol sampling because of direct collection without post-collection sample processing, In this study, sampling bacterial performance of microbial impactors with different sampling velocities and cut-point diameters was assessed, By the evaluated impactors, the recoveries of hardy bacterial spores was observed to be much higher than those of sensitive gram-negative bacteria, In addition, it was demonstrated that sampling biological recoveries of Andersen 1-STG sampler were much higher than those of MAS-100 and Burkard samplers, These might be related to lower cut-point diameter of Andersen 1-STG sampler with higher collection efficiency. Moreover, a sampling time of < 40 min was not indicated to significantly influence bacterial recoveries of the evaluated impactors.