Aerosol emission of child voices during speaking, singing and shouting

Abstract

Abstract Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, singing activities for children and young people have been strictly regulated with far-reaching consequences for music education in schools and ensemble and choir singing in some places. This is also due to the fact, that there has been no reliable data available on aerosol emissions from children’s speaking, singing, and shouting. By utilizing a laser particle counter in cleanroom conditions we show, that children emit fewer aerosols during singing than what has been known so far for adults. In our data, the emission rates ranged from 16 P/s to 267 P/s for speaking, 141 P/s to 1240 P/s for singing, and 683 P/s to 4332 P/s for shouting. The data advocate an adaptation of existing risk management strategies and rules of conduct for groups of singing children, like gatherings in an educational context, e.g. singing lessons or choir rehearsals.