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. 2021 Feb;28(2):1257-1266.
doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2020.12.011. Epub 2020 Dec 11.

Assessment of airborne endotoxin in sandstorm dust and indoor environments using a novel passive sampling device in Al Zulfi city, Saudi Arabia - Establishing threshold exposure levels

Rajendran Vijayakumar  1 , Faiz Abdulaziz Alfaiz  1 , Esam S Al-Malki  1 , Tim Sandle  2
Affiliations

Assessment of airborne endotoxin in sandstorm dust and indoor environments using a novel passive sampling device in Al Zulfi city, Saudi Arabia - Establishing threshold exposure levels

Rajendran Vijayakumar et al. Saudi J Biol Sci. 2021 Feb.

Abstract

The impact of sandstorm dust events affects local air quality and public health. These issues are becoming of greater concern in Saudi Arabia. There is a significant lack of research on airborne endotoxin exposure and analysis in the Middle East countries and no coherent body of research exists focusing on sandstorm dust in worldwide. In this study, we used a novel design of an aluminum foil plate (AFP) electrostatic dust cloth (EDC) for the passive air sampling of sandstorm dust. A total of 38 sandstorm dust samples were collected during sandstorm episodes occurring between January and April 2020 in both indoor (7 days, n = 20) and outdoor environments (24 h, n = 18). After exposure, and following an extraction procedure, bacterial endotoxin levels were measured using the Limulus Amoebocyte Lysate (LAL) gel clot method. The study highlights that the airborne endotoxin level observed was between 10 and 200 EU/m2 in both indoor and outdoor environments, during a sandstorm event. Agricultural activities and farmhouses observed higher airborne endotoxin levels. In general, increased endotoxin levels were related to the severity of the sandstorms. Given that the observed values were high as per existing guidelines for respiratory health, we recommend the setting an occupational airborne exposure limit for bacterial endotoxin. This is the first report and further studies across various sandstorm-hit regions will need to be undertaken, together with various sampling methods, in order to assess for seasonal and geographic trends.

Keywords: Airborne endotoxin; Bacterial endotoxin; Dust storms; Electrostatic dust cloth; Indoor; LAL test; Microorganisms.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Map of the study area Al-Zulfi city, Saudi Arabia.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
A customized novel device of ‘Aluminum foil plate (AFP) – electrostatic dust cloth (EDC) for passive air sampling of airborne endotoxin (a) EDC not wrapped with aluminum foil (b) Wrapped AFP-EDC device ready for depyrogenation.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Pictures illustrates severity of sandstorm hits in Al-Zulfi city; (a) no sandstorm with clear sky; (b) strong +; (c) extreme 3+.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Observed endotoxin levels compared with sandstorm severity for both indoor samples and outdoor sandstorm dust samples.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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