Department of Bioengineering, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky 40292, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2020 Oct;148(4):2322. doi: 10.1121/10.0002278.
Respiratory droplets emitted during speech can transmit oral bacteria and infectious viruses to others, including COVID-19. Loud speech can generate significantly higher numbers of potentially infectious respiratory droplets. This study assessed the effect of speech volume on respiratory emission of oral bacteria as an indicator of potential pathogen transmission risk. Loud speech (average 83 dBA, peak 94 dBA) caused significantly higher emission of oral bacteria (p = 0.004 compared to no speech) within 1 ft from the speaker. N99 respirators and simple cloth masks both significantly reduced emission of oral bacteria. This study demonstrates that loud speech without face coverings increases emission of respiratory droplets that carry oral bacteria and may also carry other pathogens such as COVID-19.
在说话时呼出的飞沫可将口腔细菌和传染性病毒传播给他人，包括 COVID-19。大声说话会产生数量明显更多的潜在传染性飞沫。本研究评估了说话音量对口腔细菌呼吸排放的影响，以此作为潜在病原体传播风险的指标。在距离说话者 1 英尺范围内，大声说话（平均 83 分贝 A，峰值 94 分贝 A）会导致口腔细菌的排放明显增加（与不说话相比，p=0.004）。N99 呼吸器和简单的布制口罩都能显著减少口腔细菌的排放。本研究表明，不戴口罩的大声说话会增加携带口腔细菌的呼吸飞沫的排放，这些飞沫也可能携带其他病原体，如 COVID-19。
