ReviewEnvironmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987)2021
The role of respiratory droplet physicochemistry in limiting and promoting the airborne transmission of human coronaviruses: A critical review.
Review in Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 81 citations in OpenAlex.
- Masks and respirators for prevention of respiratory infections: a state of the science review.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2024Pooled it
- A review on measurements of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material in air in outdoor and indoor environments: Implication for airborne transmission.The Science of the total environment · 2022Pooled it
- Heterogeneity of Airborne Virus Transmission in the Built Environment: A Narrative Review.Pathogens & immunity · 2026Review
- Ratiometric Optical Sensing of Aerosol Phase State with Excited-State Intramolecular Proton Transfer Probes.Analytical chemistry · 2025Article
- Time series analysis of low-concentration air pollution and hospital respiratory disease outpatient visits.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- National spatiotemporal patterns of influenza-like illness in Iran: A pre-COVID-19 study (2015-2019).PloS one · 2025Article
- Impact of organic compounds on the stability of influenza A virus in deposited 1-μL droplets.mSphere · 2024Article
- Review of factors affecting virus inactivation in aerosols and droplets.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Review
- Airborne respiratory aerosol transport and deposition in a two-person office using a novel diffusion-based numerical model.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2024Article
- On-site airborne pathogen detection for infection risk mitigation.Chemical Society reviews · 2023Review
- A "safety cap" for improving hospital sanitation and reducing potential disease transmission.BMC infectious diseases · 2023Article
- A review on indoor airborne transmission of COVID-19- modelling and mitigation approaches.Journal of building engineering · 2023Review
- Physicochemical characterization of porcine respiratory aerosol and considerations for future aerovirology.PNAS nexus · 2023Article
- Unanswered questions on the airborne transmission of COVID-19.Environmental chemistry letters · 2023Review
- Impact of ionizers on prevention of airborne infection in classroom.Building simulation · 2023Article
- Article
- A narrative review on the role of temperature and humidity in COVID-19: Transmission, persistence, and epidemiological evidence.Eco-Environment & Health · 2022Review
- An overview of solutions for airborne viral transmission reduction related to HVAC systems including liquid desiccant air-scrubbing.Energy (Oxford, England) · 2022Article
- Evidence for a semisolid phase state of aerosols and droplets relevant to the airborne and surface survival of pathogens.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Ultraviolet dosage and decontamination efficacy were widely variable across 14 UV devices after testing a dried enveloped ribonucleic acid virus surrogate for SARS-CoV-2.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Whether virulent human pathogenic coronaviruses (SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2) are effectively transmitted by aerosols remains contentious. Transmission modes of the novel coronavirus have become a hot topic of research with the importance of airborne transmission controversial due to the many factors that can influence virus transmission. Airborne transmission is an accepted potential route for the spread of some viral infections (measles, chickenpox); however, aerosol features and infectious inoculum vary from one respiratory virus to another. Infectious virus-laden aerosols can be produced by natural human respiratory activities, and their features are vital determinants for virus carriage and transmission. Physicochemical characteristics of infectious respiratory aerosols can influence the efficiency of virus transmission by droplets. This critical review identifies studies reporting instances of infected patients producing airborne human pathogenic coronaviruses, and evidence for the role of physical/chemical characteristics of human-generated droplets in altering embedded viruses' viability. We also review studies evaluating these viruses in the air, field studies and available evidence about seasonality patterns. Ultimately the literature suggests that a proportion of virulent human coronaviruses can plausibly be transmitted via the air, even though this might vary in different conditions. Evidence exists for respirable-sized airborne droplet nuclei containing viral RNA, although this does not necessarily imply that the virus is transmittable, capable of replicating in a recipient host, or that inoculum is sufficient to initiate infection. However, evidence suggests that coronaviruses can survive in simulated droplet nuclei for a significant time (>24 h). Nevertheless, laboratory nebulized virus-laden aerosols might not accurately model the complexity of human carrier aerosols in studying airborne viral transport. In summary, there is disagreement on whether wild coronaviruses can be transmitted via an airborne path and display seasonal patterns. Further studies are therefore required to provide supporting evidence for the role of airborne transmission and assumed mechanisms underlying seasonality.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.