Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution and Prevention, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution and Prevention, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
J Environ Sci (China). 2025 Feb;148:298-305. doi: 10.1016/j.jes.2023.08.040. Epub 2023 Sep 13.
Ultrasonic humidifiers are commonly used in households to maintain indoor humidity and generate a large number of droplets or spray aerosols. However, there have been various health concerns associated with humidifier use, largely due to aerosols generated during operation. Here, we investigated the size distribution, chemical composition, and charged fraction of aerosol particles emitted from commercial ultrasonic humidifiers. Heavy metals in water used for humidifiers were found to be highly enriched in the ultrasonic humidifier aerosols (UHA), with the enrichment factors ranging from 10 to 10. This enrichment may pose health concerns for the building occupants, as UHA concentrations of up to 10 particles/cm or 3 mg/m were observed. Furthermore, approximately 90% of UHA were observed to be electrically charged, for the first time according to our knowledge. Based on this discovery, we proposed and tested a new method to remove UHA by using a simple electrical field. The designed electrical field in this work can efficiently remove 81.4% of UHA. Therefore, applying this electrical field could be an effective method to significantly reduce the health risks by UHA.
超声波加湿器常用于家庭中以保持室内湿度，并产生大量的液滴或喷雾气溶胶。然而，加湿器的使用存在各种健康问题，主要是由于运行过程中产生的气溶胶。在这里，我们研究了商业超声波加湿器排放的气溶胶粒子的粒径分布、化学成分和带电分数。加湿器用水中的重金属在超声波加湿器气溶胶（UHA）中高度富集，富集因子范围为 10 到 10。这种富集可能对建筑物内的居住者构成健康风险，因为观察到的 UHA 浓度高达 10 个/立方厘米或 3 毫克/立方米。此外，据我们所知，大约 90%的 UHA 被观察到带有电荷，这是首次发现。基于这一发现，我们提出并测试了一种使用简单电场去除 UHA 的新方法。本工作中设计的电场可以有效地去除 81.4%的 UHA。因此，施加这种电场可能是一种有效方法，可以显著降低 UHA 带来的健康风险。
