Fig. 2

Visualization of an aerosol with and without the portable shield. Aerosol was generated using an Atomizer Aerosol Generator ATM226 (TOPAS, Dresden, Germany), dispersed through a tube placed in the manikin’s mouth, and visualized with laser-light scattering. Without the shield, the aerosol reached to the operator within 30 s (white arrowhead, 30-s time point is shown) (a). The portable shield drastically reduced exposure of the operator to the aerosol (white arrow, 30-s time point is shown) (b). Particle counts 50 cm away from the mouth of the manikin using a Kanomax Portable Particle Counter (Model 3889, EndoKagaku, Shizuoka, Japan) revealed that the shield effectively minimized aerosol dispersion when suction was applied to create negative pressure (c)