[Concentrations and Community Structures of Culturable Bacteria in Aerosols of Household Garbage Stations in...

The airborne microorganism has attracted increasing attention, and household garbage carries various pathogenic bacteria that affect the surrounding environment and public health. In this study, the culturable bacteria in the air were collected by using a six-level Anderson sampler, and the temperature, relative humidity, PM_2.5, and PM₁₀ in the garbage stations and their surrounding environment were recorded. The relationships between environmental factors and culturable bacterial pollution in the air were also analyzed. The results showed that the culturable bacterial concentrations in five sampling sites (the garbage station of a villa and the area downwind, the garbage station of a campus, the roof of an office building, and the garbage station of a residential area) were (1254±92), (280±123), (172±47), (84±18), and (175±174) CFU·m^-3, respectively. The concentrations of the culturable bacteria in the garbage station of the villa were significantly higher than those of other sampling sites, mainly because there were biochemical treatment facilities for the on-site treatment of wet garbage in the garbage house. The sizes of the culturable bacteria in the garbage station of the villa mainly ranged from 1.1-4.7 μm, and the bacterial sizes at the other four sampling sites were primarily larger than 7 μm, with a few bacteria ranging from 1.1-2.1 μm. In this study, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes were the dominant phyla, and Corynebacterium and Bacillus were the dominant genera. More importantly, some opportunistic pathogens such as Corynebacterium, Staphylococcus, and Acinetobacter were also detected. The concentrations of the culturable bacteria in the garbage station of the villa were highly correlated with temperature, relative humidity, PM_2.5, and PM₁₀. Exiguobacterium in the air was highly correlated with PM₁₀, temperature, and relative humidity. The health hazard quotient (HQ) values of the five sampling sites were all less than 1; however, the results of microbial quantitative risk assessment showed that the health risks of the male and female staff in the three garbage houses were all higher than the corresponding reference values. This study revealed the influence of garbage stations on the bioaerosol in the surrounding environment and provided references for the evaluation of air quality in and around garbage stations.