Article in Building and Environment

Anja Pogačnik Krajnc, Matjaž Malok, and Maja Remškar in collaboration with Marjetka Conradi from Institute of Metals and Technology, Ljubljana, and Melita Tramšek and Marko Jeran from Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology K1 have published  an article entitled »Selective real-time monitoring of respiratory droplets for indoor air safety in educational environments« in »Building and Environment«.

Infectious respiratory diseases in kindergartens and schools spread primarily through tiny droplets of saliva that are exhaled or coughed out. Using the AeroDrops respiratory droplet detector—developed at the Jožef Stefan Institute (IJS)—we measured the concentration of respiratory droplets in real time within a kindergarten, a primary school classroom, a university lecture hall, and an experimental chemistry laboratory. The detector selectively counted respiratory droplets while remaining insensitive to other particles that constitute the majority of aerosols. Temporal variations in droplet concentrations reflected the impact of participant activities, occupancy levels, vocalization, and movement. The results demonstrate that the real-time, selective monitoring of respiratory droplets offers a novel approach for assessing indoor air quality and enables ventilation management that responds to actual exposure to potential infection.

Link to the article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2026.115281