Table 1. Sources of bioaerosol.
| Bioaerosol source | Mechanisms | Particle size distributiona,b | Reference(s) |
| Healthcare | Surgical or dental procedures | Up to 50 µme | 1 and 2 |
| Hospital air | <2 µm (22%), 2 to 6 µm (30%), >5 µm (48%) | 3 | |
| Mechanical ventilators, bed making, and resuspension on dust or skin squamae | 0.3 to >5 µm | 4 and 5 | |
| Water industry | Cooling towers | <5 up to >100 µm (bimodal peaks at <5 µm and 20–40 µm) | 6 |
| Wastewater irrigation sites | 1.0 to 5.9 µm | 7 | |
| Agricultural/forestry industries | Grain harvesting, food processing, dust, and/or feces from animal housing and farming activities | 0.9 to 18.9 µm 0.5 to >5 µm (increase in 2 to >5 µm range) |
8 and 9 |
| Insecticidal crop spraying | 4.6 to 39 µmd | 10 and 11 | |
| 12.3 to 37.1 µmc | 12 | ||
| 15 to 45 µmc | 13 | ||
| 60 to 100 µm (kromecote card); 5.3 to 7.3 µm (Anderson cascade impactor) | 14 | ||
| Genetic dispersion | Pollen grains: 10 to 100 µme | 15 | |
| Fungal spores: 1 to 50 µme | 16 | ||
| Postal and shopping industry | Mail sorting and opening | 0.3 to >5 µm; 19.6-fold increase in particles >5 µm | 17 |
| Mist machine | “between 40 and 70 µm” | 18 | |
| Leisure activities | Marine activities, e.g., surfing | 24 to 44 µm, median 34 µm | 19 |
| Whirlpools | <1 to 15 µm dependent on turbulence | 20 | |
| Human activity | Breathing | <0.8 to 2 µm | 21 |
| Speaking | 16 to 125 µm | 22 and 23 | |
| <0.8 to 7 µm | 21 | ||
| Shouting | 0.5 to 10 µm (mean = 1.0 µm) | 24 | |
| Coughing | 0.62 to 15.9 µm | 21, 22, and 25–27 | |
| 40 to 125 µm | 23 and 28 | ||
| Sneezing | 7 to 125 µm | 28 and 29 | |
| Vuvuzela playing | 0.5 to >10 µm (mean = 1.3 µm) | 24 | |
| Showering | Hot water (5.2 to 7.5 µm) | 30 | |
| Cold water (2.5 to 3.1 µm) | |||
| Miscellaneous | Pulp waste water treatment plant | 2.4 to 3.5 µm (median); 99.9% of particles were below 15 µm | 31 |
| Building tower (sweeping dust containing pigeon feces) | 1.1 to 11.0 µm | 32 |
a Aerodynamic diameter; bdistributions should be viewed with caution as often experiments used samplers with cut off limits less than 15 µm and therefore were preferentially selective for particles smaller than this size; cspray-dried Bacillus thuringiensis produced at different homogenization speeds; dnon-biological aerosols for vector control; eprocedure- or species-dependent.