Standards Development

Scope

This document specifies general requirements for the measurement of viruses in workplace air. This document complements the scope of EN 13098.

The document provides guidelines for the assessment of workplace exposure to airborne viruses comprising the methodology for sampling as well as for analysis, which is applicable for both, active or inactive viruses, e.g. methods based on cell-culture or molecular biology.

This document is not applicable for the measurement of other microorganisms than viruses and microbial compounds.

Purpose

A first draft on “sampling and detection of viruses in bioaerosols” has already been prepared by the “former” WG 5 of CEN/TC 137 in the early 2000s (doc. CEN/TC 137/WG 5 N 97). Meanwhile several outbreaks of viruses, which were transmitted by aerosols, happened: SARS 2002/2003, Avian Flu (H5N1) known since 2004, Swine Flu (H1N1), 2009/2010, MERS 2012, Zika-virus 2015/201 6, Influenza 2017/2018, SARS-CoV 2 2019.

Detection of viruses in workplace air might be helpful to get information on

• risk assessment on the exposure situation of employees, e.g. those getting into close contact with infected persons (medical services, healthcare), with many different and possibly infected persons (e.g. pharmacists, teacher, bus drivers) or with potential contaminated matrices (wastewater management plants). Based on the risk assessment recommendation and prioritizing of protection and preventive measures can be developed, e.g. measures like vaccination for teachers or certain personal protection equipment (PPE) for different activities in medical services/health care;

• assessment of the efficacy of technical protection measures (e.g. ventilation, use of air cleaners, use of disinfection procedures)

The proposed work item should include (not extensive list):

 safety precautions for sampling and analysis;

 recommended sampling, storage, processing and analyzing methods, depending on the situation and research question or monitoring objective;

 data analysis/ informative value of the data depending on the chosen method; and

 limits of detection/quantification, e.g. if no viruses are registered – does that mean it is safe?