Evaluation of ultraviolet germicidal irradiation in reducing the airborne cultural bacteria concentrations in an elementary school in the Midwestern United States

Abstract

This article describes a case study the authors conducted in an elementary school in the Midwest. The objective was to evaluate the performance of ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UGVI) to reduce the bioaerosol concentration in a classroom. Two fourth grade classrooms with the same dimensions were studied. One classroom was designated as the UVGI group and the other as the control group. Two-stage Tisch culturable impactors were utilized for collecting airborne bacteria with monthly samples collected from October 2012 to January 2013. Nonparametric methods were applied and p-values smaller than.05 were deemed significant. The concentrations of airborne cultural bacteria with a smaller size (1-8 μm) and the total bacterial concentrations from the UVGI classroom were significantly lower than those of the control room in three of four sampling months. These results could provide the preliminary results necessary to determine the effectiveness of upper-room UVGI in reducing the concentration of airborne cultural bacteria in classrooms and other buildings.