Summary
Background
During the Covid-19 pandemic, singing activities were restricted due to several super-spreading
events that have been observed during rehearsals and vocal performances. However,
it has not been clarified how the aerosol dispersion, which has been assumed to be
the leading transmission factor, could be reduced by masks which are specially designed
for singers.
Material and Methods
Twelve professional singers (10 of the Bavarian Radio-Chorus and two freelancers,
seven females and five males) were asked to sing the melody of the ode of joy of Beethoven's
9th symphony “Freude schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elisium” in D-major without
masks and afterwards with five different singers’ masks, all distinctive in their
material and proportions. Every task was conducted after inhaling the basic liquid
from an e-cigarette. The aerosol dispersion was recorded by three high-definition
video cameras during and after the task. The cloud was segmented and the dispersion
was analyzed for all three spatial dimensions. Further, the subjects were asked to
rate the practicability of wearing the tested masks during singing activities using
a questionnaire.
Results
Concerning the median distances of dispersion, all masks were able to decrease the
impulse dispersion of the aerosols to the front. In contrast, the dispersion to the
sides and to the top was increased. The evaluation revealed that most of the subjects
would reject performing a concert with any of the masks.
Conclusion
Although, the results exhibit that the tested masks could be able to reduce the radius
of aerosol expulsion for virus-laden aerosol particles, there are more improvements
necessary to enable the practical implementations for professional singing.
Key Words
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Journal of VoiceAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
REFERENCES
Charlotte N. High Rate of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission due to Choir Practice in France at the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic. 2020 S0892-1997
- High SARS-CoV-2 attack rate following exposure at a choir practice - Skagit County, Washington, March 2020.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020; 69: 606-610
Van der Lint P. Die ene Passion die wel doorging, met rampzalige gevolgen. Trouw. 09.05.2020, 2020.
SARS-CoV-2: Wie ein Sänger (fast) den gesamten Chor angesteckt hat. 2020. https://www.aerzteblatt.de/nachrichten/112861/SARS-CoV-2-Wie-ein-Saenger-(fast)-den-gesamten-Chor-angesteckt-hat. Published 14. Mai 2020.
- The size and the duration of air-carriage of respiratory droplets and droplet-nuclei.J Hyg (Lond). 1946; 44: 471-479
- Modality of human expired aerosol size distributions.J Aerosol Sci. 2011; 42: 839-851
- Aerosol emission is increased in professional singing.Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Department of Audiology and Phoniatrics, Berlin. Germany Technische Universität Berlin, Hermann Rietschel-Institut, Berlin, Germany2020e0246819
- Reply to Philip et al.: aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2: inhalation as well as exhalation matters for COVID-19.Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2021; 203: 1042-1043
- Images in clinical medicine. A Sneeze.N Engl J Med. 2016; 375: e15
- Enhanced spread of expiratory droplets by turbulence in a cough jet.Build Environ. 2015; 93: 86-96
- Turbulent gas clouds and respiratory pathogen emissions: potential implications for reducing transmission of COVID-19.JAMA. 2020; 323: 1837-1838
- The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020; 117: 11875-11877
- Airborne spread of infectious agents in the indoor environment.Am J Infect Control. 2016; 44: S102-S108
- Exhaled respiratory particles during singing and talking.Aerosol Science and Technology. 2020; 54: 1245-1248
- Aerosol emission and superemission during human speech increase with voice loudness.Sci Rep. 2019; 9: 2348
- The spread of breathing air from wind instruments and singers using schlieren techniques.Indoor Air. 2021; (Online ahead of print 2021 Jun 14)
- Impulse Dispersion of aerosols during singing and speaking: a potential COVID-19 transmission pathway.Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2020; 202: 1584-1587
- Sources of aerosol dispersion during singing and potential safety procedures for singers.J Voice. 2021; (Epub ahead of print 2021 Apr 10)
- How can airborne transmission of COVID-19 indoors be minimised?.Environ Int. 2020; 142 (105832-105832)
Nusseck M., Richter B., Holtmeier L., et al. CO2 measurements in instrumental and vocal closed room settings as a risk reducing measure for a Coronavirus infection. medRxiv. Epub ahead of print 2020, October 27
- Efficacy of masks and face coverings in controlling outward aerosol particle emission from expiratory activities.Sci Rep. 2020; 10: 15665
- COVID-19: mask efficacy is dependent on both fabric and fit.Future Microbiol. 2021; 16: 5-11
- Visualizing the effectiveness of face masks in obstructing respiratory jets.Phys Fluids (1994). 2020; 32061708
- Acoustic effect of face mask design and material choice.Acoust Aust. 2021; : 1-8
- Acoustic effects of medical, cloth, and transparent face masks on speech signals.J Acoust Soc Am. 2020; 148: 2371-2375
- Effects of face masks on acoustic analysis and speech perception: implications for peri-pandemic protocols.J Acoust Soc Am. 2020; 148: 3562-3568
- How face masks affect acoustic and auditory perceptual characteristics of the singing voice.J Voice. 2021; (Epub aheda of print, March 25)
- Impact of face masks on voice radiation.J Acoust Soc America. 2020; 148: 3663-3670
- Morphometric differences of vocal tract articulators in different loudness conditions in singing.PLoS One. 2016; 11e0153792
- The Voice Handicap Index (VHI).Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 1997; 6: 66-70
- Validation of the German version of the Voice Handicap Index.HNO. 2003; 51: 921-930
- Tracer gas is a suitable surrogate of exhaled droplet nuclei for studying airborne transmission in the built environment.Build Simul. 2020; : 1-8
- Electronic cigarette aerosol particle size distribution measurements.Inhal Toxicol. 2012; 24: 976-984
- COVID-19 may transmit through aerosol.Ir J Med Sci. 2020; 189: 1143-1144
Broadwayrelief Project. https://www.broadwayreliefproject.com/singersmask. Accessed.
Kohara C. New face shield for concert singers nothing to sneeze at. 2020. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/photo/32556607. Published August 10, 2020.
Morgenstern JuJ. Die Masked-Singers. https://jazzchor-dresden.de/the-masked-singers. Published 2020
- BAGLS, a multihospital benchmark for automatic glottis segmentation.Sci Data. 2020; 7: 186
- A deep learning enhanced novel software tool for laryngeal dynamics analysis.J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2021; 64: 1889-1903
Kniesburges S., Peters G., Westphalen C., et al. Effects of surgical masks on aerosol dispersion in professional singing 2021. J Exposure Sci Envir Epidemiol
- A schlieren optical study of the human cough with and without wearing masks for aerosol infection control.J R Soc Interface. 2009; 6: S727-S736
- Experimental visualization of sneezing and efficacy of face masks and shields.Phys Fluids. 2020; 32115129
- How do medical masks degrade speech perception?.Hear Rev. 2020; 27: 8-9
- Qualitative and quantitative schlieren optical measurement of the human thermal plume.Indoor Air. 2020; 30: 757-766
- Human comfort modelling for elderly people by infrared thermography: evaluating the thermoregulation system responses in an indoor environment during winter.Build Environ. 2020; 186107354
Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 02, 2021
Accepted:
August 26,
2021
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2021 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
