Impulse dispersion of aerosols during playing wind instruments

  1. Sophia Gantner
  2. Matthias Echternach
  3. Reinhard Veltrup
  4. Caroline Westphalen
  5. Marie Christine Köberlein
  6. Liudmila Kuranova
  7. Gregor Peters
  8. Bernhard Jakubaß
  9. Tobias Benthaus
  10. Michael Döllinger
  11. Stefan Kniesburges

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Abstract

Musical activities, especially singing and playing wind instruments, have been singled out as potentially high-risk activities for the transmission of SARS CoV-2, due to a higher rate of aerosol production and emission. Playing wind instruments can produce condensation, droplets of saliva, and aerosol particles, which hover and spread in the environmental air’s convectional flows and which can be potentially infectious. The aim of this study is to investigate the primary impulse dispersion of aerosols that takes place during the playing of different wind instruments as compared to breathing and to speaking. Nine professional musicians (3 trumpeters, 3 flautists and 3 clarinetists) from the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra performed the main theme from the 4 th movement of Ludwig van Beethoven‘s 9 th symphony in different pitches and loudness. The inhaled air volume was marked with small aerosol particles produced using a commercial e-cigarette. The expelled aerosol cloud was recorded by cameras from different perspectives. Afterwards, the dimensions and dynamics of the aerosol cloud were measured by segmenting the video footage at every time point. Overall, the flutes produced the largest dispersion at the end of the task, reaching maximum forward distances of 1.88 m. An expulsion of aerosol was observed in different directions: upwards and downwards at the mouthpiece, at the end of the instrument, and along the flute at the key plane. In comparison, the maximum impulse dispersions generated by the trumpets and clarinets were lower in frontal and lateral direction (1.2 m and 1.0 m towards the front, respectively). Also, the expulsion to the sides was lower.

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  1. Version published to 10.1371/journal.pone.0262994
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    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.01.25.20248984: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIACUC: With the approvement from the local ethical committee (20-395), 9 professional musicians (1 female, 8 male, age 48±4 years) from the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks) were included in the study.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variableWith the approvement from the local ethical committee (20-395), 9 professional musicians (1 female, 8 male, age 48±4 years) from the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks) were included in the study.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    All participants practice western classical music and had completed their instrumental studies at an University of Music.
    Music
    suggested: (MuSiC, RRID:SCR_008792)
    The computation of curve smoothing was performed in Matlab (The Mathworks Inc., Natick, MA).
    Matlab
    suggested: (MATLAB, RRID:SCR_001622)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.01.25.20248984v1 on medRxiv