AERATOR collaboration

Our AERATOR collaboration with the Bristol Aerosol Research Centre (BARC) pioneered the translation of aerosol sciences into the clinical environment. It informed vital policy changes and highlighted the dangers of coughing to healthcare workers.

We are extending this work to other regions of the UK. We will do this by collaborating with Bradford NHS Foundation Trust and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) patient recruitment centre.

During this project, we will use breathing circuits designed during the study (medical devices used to help a patient breathe during surgery) to measure aerosol emissions outside operating theatres. We will then take these circuits into normal hospital wards.

We will also measure bioaerosols (particles in the air that contain living organisms like bacteria or plant pollen) using another new tool – the Wideband Integrated Bioaerosol Sensor (WIBS). Bioaerosols can carry disease transmitting pathogens. The WIBS sensor can tell us more about bioaerosols and help compare them to non-bioaerosols, which don’t transmit infectious diseases.