Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cHABs) can negatively impact public health due to toxins like microcystins that can cause serious illness or death in people, pets, livestock and wildlife through ingestion by drinking or by contact with skin.
Toxins can also be found in the atmosphere as aerosols from freshwater lakes during cHAB blooms and cause illness by inhalation. A recent study aimed to measure microcystin levels in both water and aerosol samples during a bloom at Grand Lake St. Marys, Ohio.
An AirPrep™ (Bobcat) Sampler was placed on the lake's beach and set to a high flow rate of 200 LPM. Environmental DNA analysis confirmed the presence of algae in the air, albeit in low concentrations. The amount of microcystins in aerosols varied despite constant water concentrations, indicating that factors like wind speed, direction, and mechanisms like wave breaking affect human exposure.
Read the publication:
Aerosolized Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Bloom Toxins: Microcystin Congeners Quantified in the Atmosphere Shi, et al. Environmental Science & Technology Dec. 2023
