Assessing Exposure to Bioaerosols for Public Health Purposes: Turning the micro into the macro.

Bioaerosols are ubiquitous in the environment and are comprised of a complex mix of different species and components of fungi, bacteria, pollen, and viruses. Exposure to some bioaerosols can be beneficial to health, and are an essential part of developing a normal, healthy immune system, whereas others can be detrimental and can cause or exacerbate a plethora of health conditions.

Understanding bioaerosol exposure is an essential part of understanding health effects and is often termed the ‘Achilles heel’ of environmental epidemiological studies. However, how do we assess exposure to such a complex mixture of biological matter, which changes spatially and temporally? How do we scale up what we discover at a handful of field sampling locations, or a cell model, to a larger national scale to help decision makers?

Here, I plan to present on current progress, gaps and challenges in assessing exposure to bioaerosols, using some past and ongoing work as key examples, and inviting opinions from the audience on how we can work together in the future to address gaps and challenges in this multidisciplinary field.