These virus particles are contained in aerosols, which are a cloud of fine droplets. You don’t see those air particles, but they do float around. For half an hour even with the elevator doors closed.
With normal use of the elevator, the aerosols linger in the elevator cabin for ten to twenty minutes, it shows UvA research.
‘Indoor air’
The research, which was conducted by two UvA physicists, including professor Daniel Bonn, has been published in the scientific journal ‘Indoor Air’.
Aerosols are increasingly seen as a potentially important means of transmission of corona, the UvA reports in a press release. The only question is to what extent the virus must be present in these aerosols to actually infect and make someone ill.
–
–
The researchers, who collaborated with Amsterdam UMC, mimic a series of single coughs using a specially designed nozzle. With this they spread a controlled amount of drops, comparable to a single cough.
Laser detected aerosols
To detect the aerosols in the elevator, they used a laser that lit the aerosol particles so that their numbers could be counted.
The experiments were conducted in elevator cabins during normal use, with the door open about 10 to 20 percent of the time.
–
–
Aerosols can be spread by coughing, but also by talking. A single cough can produce several million droplets, speaking loudly produces several hundred thousand droplets per minute.
Thousands of virus particles per minute
In the case of the elevator, this could mean that you are breathing exhaled air from an infected person. You then receive thousands of virus particles per minute. But does that also make you sick? That question cannot be answered yet.
“It is not known what the minimum infectious dose is,” the university reports. Aerosols may cause relatively milder symptoms than direct contact transmission.
To be on the safe side, the researchers recommend leaving elevator doors open longer and talking and coughing as little as possible in an elevator, or wearing an ‘adequate face mask’. They also point out the importance of ventilation.
–
–
