Purpose: As part of a broad project to model the impact of vomiting on foodborne NoV transmission, the purpose of this work was to characterize the radius of impact of a simulated vomiting event.
Methods: To model vomit “splatter,” or the distance traveled by vomitus upon its deposition on a solid surface, a “Tipping Bucket” experiment was designed. This consisted of rigging a bucket to a ladder, and pouring colored simulated vomitus onto a tarp upon which a target was drawn, allowing the measurement of the distance from the center of splatter to the farthest droplet. Data were also recorded by camera. Two simulated vomitus matrices were used: reconstituted instant oatmeal (to simulate vomitus having high solids content) and artificial saliva (a dilute solution porcine mucin in saline). Volumes ranging from 50-800 ml were dropped 3.5 ft. off the ladder. The ImageJ program was used to analyze the data.
Results: For oatmeal, the furthest distance traveled by a droplet was highly dependent upon volume, with the mean distance traveled ranging from 3-3.5 ft. for higher volumes (> 600 ml). On the other hand, regardless of volume, artificial saliva experiments yielded a mean distance of 8-12 ft.; the greatest distance traveled in any one experiment was 14.5 ft.
Significance: Taken together, these measurements suggest that vomitus splatter can be deposited between 3 and 15 ft. away from the initial vomiting contact area. This has implications relative to recommended clean up zones after a public vomiting event. Further work to characterize aerosolization of vomitus is in progress.