Airborne Pathogens inside Automobiles for Domestic Use: Assessing In-Car Air Decontamination Devices Using Staphylococcus aureus as the Challenge Bacterium

What is it about?

Even though we spend much time as drivers or passengers inside family cars, not much attention has been paid to the quality of air inside them. The risk of combined exposure to microbes, volatile chemicals and particulates is also higher in them than in most other settings. Devices sold for decontaminating in-car air are either not assessed at all or are done so using flawed test methods. Also, no standardized and validated methods are thus far available for the use of device makers and regulatory agencies. Our study was aimed at filling this gap.

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Why is it important?

This is the first study of its kind where the passenger cabin of a four-door family sedan was placed inside an aerobiology chamber and then experimentally-contaminated with aerosolized Staphylococcus aureus, a common type of airborne pathogen, to first assess its ability to survive inside family cars. Three types of commercially-available devices claiming in-car air decontamination were then assessed in a field-relevant manner. While all the devices were based on a similar technology, two of them achieved a >99.9% reduction in microbial viability in about 45 minutes, the third failed to do so. Our experimental set-up and test protocol are versatile enough for application to other types of airborne pathogens, and also to assess the combined effects of other types of in-car airborne pollutants. Further, our work could form the basis for the development of a standardized test protocols for use by researchers, device makers and regulators alike.

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