Portable humidifiers are extensively employed to increase indoor humidity; however, the generated particles could affect people indoors and cause a heavy disease burden. This study aims to compare the potential for an ultrasonic humidifier and an evaporative humidifier to release suspended materials contained in the charging water in a room-sized chamber and estimate the disease burden attributed to PM_2.5 released by humidifiers. Size distributions and concentrations of indoor particles were measured when humidifiers were filled with five types of water with varying total dissolved solids (TDS). Results showed a linear association (R²=0.980) between particles produced by the ultrasonic humidifier and the TDS in water. Evaporative humidifiers could produce a small number of particles when tap water was used, but the linear relationship between the released particles and TDS in water was weak (R²=0.028). The disability-adjusted life years (DALY) attributed to PM_2.5 generated by the ultrasonic humidifier was 22.4 times that of the evaporative humidifier when using tap water. This study provides valuable data on characteristics of particles released by two different humidifiers and highlights the potential disease burden of exposure to PM_2.5 generated by humidifiers, which may help exclude any adverse effects of using portable humidifiers.

便携式加湿器被广泛用于增加室内湿度；然而，产生的颗粒会影响室内的人们并造成沉重的疾病负担。本研究旨在比较超声波加湿器和蒸发加湿器在房间大小的房间内释放充电水中所含悬浮物质的潜力，并估计归因于加湿器释放的PM _2.5的疾病负担。当加湿器充满五种具有不同总溶解固体 (TDS) 的水时，测量了室内颗粒的尺寸分布和浓度。结果显示线性关联（R ²=0.980) 超声波加湿器产生的颗粒与水中的 TDS 之间的差异。使用自来水时，蒸发式加湿器会产生少量颗粒，但释放的颗粒与水中TDS之间的线性关系较弱（R ² =0.028）。使用自来水时，超声波加湿器产生的PM _2.5导致的伤残调整生命年 (DALY)是蒸发加湿器的 22.4 倍。这项研究提供了关于两种不同加湿器释放的颗粒特征的宝贵数据，并强调了暴露于加湿器产生的PM _2.5的潜在疾病负担，这可能有助于排除使用便携式加湿器的任何不利影响。