Probable Evidence of Aerosol Transmission of SARS-COV-2 in a COVID-19 Outbreak of a High-Rise Building.

Although it is well established that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can be transmitted through aerosols, the mode of long-range aerosol transmission in high-rise buildings remains unclear. In this study, we analyzed an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that occurred in a high-rise building in China. Our objective was to investigate the plausibility of aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by testing relevant environmental variables and measuring the dispersion of a tracer gas in the drainage system of the building. The outbreak involved 7 infected families, of which 6 were from vertically aligned flats on different floors. Environmenìtal data revealed that 3 families' bathrooms were contaminated by SARS-CoV-2. In our tracer experiment, we injected tracer gas (CO2) into the dry floor drains and into water-filled toilets in the index case' s bathroom. Our findings showed that the gas could travel through vertical pipes by the dry floor drains, but not through the water of the toilets. This indicates that dry floor drains might facilitate the transmission of viral aerosols through the sewage system. On the basis of circumstantial evidence, long-range aerosol transmission may have contributed to the community outbreak of COVID-19 in this high-rise building. The vertical transmission of diseases through aerosols in high-rise buildings demands urgent attention.

Speciation analysis of arsenic in edible mushrooms by high-performance liquid chromatography hyphenated to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

Some varieties of edible mushrooms can accumulate high contents of arsenic, which is a public health concern. In this study, we developed a high-performance liquid chromatography method linked to inductively coupled plasma triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS/MS) for sensitive and accurate determination of arsenite, arsenate, monomethylarsonic acid, dimethylarsinic acid, arsenocholine and arsenobetaine in edible mushrooms. The six arsenic species were extracted ultrasonically from mushrooms using ultrapure water at 60 °C as the solvent, separated on a PRP-X100 anion exchange column (4.1 × 250 mm, 10 µm), with 20 mmol/L NH4HCO3 and 50 mmol/L (NH4)2CO3 as the mobile phase, and quantified using ICP-MS/MS in the oxygen reaction mode. The linear range of the method was 0.5 µg/L-100 µg/L with detection and quantification limits of 2.5 µg/kg-10 µg/kg (S/N = 3), and 8 µg/kg-33 µg/kg (S/N = 10), respectively. This method was applied successfully to the detection and speciation of arsenic in eight varieties (266 samples) of mushrooms. Our results indicated that most wild edible mushrooms contained organic arsenic, mainly arsenobetaine and arsenocholine. However, the inorganic arsenic content of Armillariella tabescens (3.63 mg/kg) and parts of the cultivated Agaricus blazei murrill (up to 4.50 mg/kg) were relatively high, which is potential risk to the health of consumers.

Speciation analysis of mercury in wild edible mushrooms by high-performance liquid chromatography hyphenated to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

Wild edible mushrooms can accumulate significantly elevated levels of mercury from the surrounding environment, which could be harmful to consumers' health. Speciation analysis of mercury in wild edible mushrooms aids in understanding the human exposure to these toxic compounds. In this study, we developed a high-performance liquid chromatography hyphenated to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS) method for the simultaneous determination of inorganic mercury (Hg(II)), methylmercury (MeHg), ethylmercury (EtHg), and phenylmercury (PhHg) in wild edible mushrooms. A rapid separation of four target mercury species was achieved within 11 min by a C8 column without utilizing high proportion of organic phase in HPLC. The parameters affecting the extraction efficiency of mercury in samples have been investigated. The proposed method showed good linearity within 0-50 µg/L with the detection and quantification limits of 0.6-4.5 µg/kg (S/N = 3), and 2.0-15 µg/kg (S/N = 10), respectively. This proposed method was successfully applied to the mercury speciation analysis in 7 varieties (95 samples) of wild edible mushrooms. The results indicated that in most mushroom samples, mercury mainly occurred as inorganic mercury. But there were two Tricholoma matsutakes, one contained 0.14 mg/kg of methylmercury, another contained 1.05 mg/kg of phenylmercury, which were higher than the maximum allowable content of total mercury in edible mushrooms in China. Graphical abstract.