Abstract

Water mist systems (WMS) are used for evaporative cooling in public areas. The health risks associated with their colonization by opportunistic premise plumbing pathogens (OPPPs) is not well understood. To advance the understanding of the potential health risk of OPPPs in WMS, biofilm, water and bioaerosol samples (n = 90) from ten (10) WMS in Australia were collected and analyzed by culture and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods to detect the occurrence of five representative OPPPs: Legionella pneumophila, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Mycobacterium avium, Naegleria fowleri and Acanthamoeba. P. aeruginosa (44%, n = 90) occurred more frequently in samples, followed by L. pneumophila serogroup (Sg) 2–14 (18%, n = 90) and L. pneumophila Sg 1 (6%, n = 90). A negative correlation between OPPP occurrence and residual free chlorine was observed except with Acanthamoeba, rs (30) = 0.067, p > 0.05. All detected OPPPs were positively correlated with total dissolved solids (TDS) except with Acanthamoeba. Biofilms contained higher concentrations of L. pneumophila Sg 2–14 (1000–3000 CFU/mL) than water samples (0–100 CFU/mL). This study suggests that WMS can be colonized by OPPPs and are a potential health risk if OPPP contaminated aerosols get released into ambient atmospheres

RAS ID

35540

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

2021

Funding Information

Edith Cowan University - Open Access Support Scheme 2021

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Publisher

MDPI

Comments

Masaka, E., Reed, S., Davidson, M., & Oosthuizen, J. (2021). Opportunistic premise plumbing pathogens. A potential health risk in water mist systems used as a cooling intervention. Pathogens, 10(4), 462. https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10040462

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.3390/pathogens10040462