Adults produce four times as many airborne particles, increasing the risk of COVID-19
Children ‘breathe out fewer aerosol droplets’, which could reduce their risk of COVID, a new study has concluded. Young children produce about four times fewer particles than adults, which may help explain their lower risk of coronavirus transmission.
Primary school children produce about four times less airborne particles when breathing, talking or singing compared to adults, which may help explain why they appear to be less at risk of spreading COVID.
According to The Guardian, various studies have shown that young children are about half as susceptible to contracting COVID as adults and, despite carrying the same amount of coronavirus in their nose and throat, appear to be passing it on to fewer people. if they get infected.
One possibility is that the size and shape of children’s lungs and airways means they emit fewer tiny airborne droplets called aerosols when they breathe and talk. These particles can linger in the air, especially in enclosed spaces such as classrooms, so fewer aerosols may mean other people are less likely to become infected if they are also in those spaces.
For the study, Dr. Mario Fleischer of the Charité Medical University in Berlin and colleagues enrolled 16 healthy children aged 8 to 10 and used a laser particle counter to measure how many aerosol particles they emit when breathing at rest, as well as while talking. , singing and screaming.
The results, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, showed that screams produced the most particles, followed by singing, speaking and breathing. However, the speed of particle emission and the loudness of sound during singing, talking and breathing in children were about four times lower compared to measurements taken in 15 adults.
“More precisely, the children emitted [количество частиц и выбросы] during a conversation of the same order as adults, breathing, and during singing they radiated the same [скорости и объемы частиц]like adults during a conversation,” says Dr. Fleischer.
However, the amount of aerosols produced during screaming was more similar between adults and children.
The authors also cautioned that there are significant differences between individuals and their results do not suggest that attending schools or extracurricular activities is not risky.
“Especially in high-volume clusters, which are common in the daily lives of children and adolescents, aerosol emissions can be similar across age groups as measured by crying status,” says Dr. Fleischer. “On the other hand, singing and talking at a typical children’s volume may be less restrictive if the time frame is limited, such as in regular school and extra-curricular settings.”
The expert added that other factors, such as the number of children and the design of indoor ventilation, also matter, and that further research is needed to inform any recommendations made to schools.