Human exposure against airborne pathogens in an office environment

Airborne exposure has been highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic as a probable infection route. This experimental study investigates different protection methods at an office workstation, where the concentration characteristics are studied under mixing ventilation conditions. The protection methods were the room air purifier, personal air purifier, face mask, and workstation partition panels. In experiments, the breathing machine, nebulizer, and syringe pump were used to generate an aerosol distribution of paraffin oil in the room. The breathing thermal manikin and the thermal dummy simulated the exposed and infected person, respectively. The concentration characteristics were measured from the manikin breathing zone. The temporal concentration characteristics were measured from zero concentration to steady-state conditions. The study provides insights into the effects of different protection methods for occupational health and safety decision-making for office indoor environments.