Investigating the concentration and health risk assessment of bioaerosols in the surgery centers and hospital operating rooms of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: Due to the special conditions in operating rooms, infection control is important to maintain health. So, the aim of this study was to survey of air exchange rate/changes per hour (ACH) and health risk assessment of bioaerosols in the surgery center or hospital operating rooms. Materials and Methods: The results of measuring of bioaerosols by pollution measurement companies were used, in 1401. In 1402, 10 operating rooms were randomly selected and the reliability of the results was examined for these two years. Sampling and analysis of the samples was provided based on the NIOSH 0800 method and ACH were measured by a anemometer. The relationship between the number of bioaerosols and ACH, and also, the reliability between results were calculated with the PCC and the ICC test, respectively, in SPSS-V22 software. The health risk assessment and the probability of risk were estimated by Monte Carlo simulation, in Crystal Ball software. Results: Among 62 operating rooms, the average number of bacterial and fungal colonies was 69.73±14.59 CFU/m3 and 21.67±4.52 CFU/m3, respectively, which is less than the recommended limit of WHO. The average ACH was 19.67±2.18 per hour. No significant relationship was observed between ACH and the number of colonies (p-value ≥ 0.05). Risk assessment for bacteria and fungi were at an acceptable level and the concentration of bioaerosols was recognized as the most sensitive variable influencing the risk. Conclusion: Increasing ACH will not lead to a reduction in the load of bioaerosol pollution in operating rooms, which can be very important in the management of reducing energy consumption.