カラオケ飲食、飛沫１４倍　大声の会話でも９倍―豊橋技科大

　カラオケで飲食をしながら歌うと、口から出る飛沫（ひまつ）の量が通常の会話時に比べ約１４倍になるとの実験結果を、豊橋技術科学大（愛知県豊橋市）の飯田明由教授が１６日までに発表した。
　実験では、マウスシールドの内側に、水滴が付着すると色が変わる「感水紙」を張り、１平方センチメートル当たりの平均の斑点の数から飛沫量を計測した。その結果、通常の会話レベルの６０～７０デシベルの声で２５秒間発声した場合に比べ、飲食しながら大声（８０～９０デシベル）で１５秒間歌唱すると、飛沫の量が約１４倍となった。
　飲食をしないケースでは、普通の声で歌うと会話時の約４倍、大声だと約１１倍だった。大声で会話した場合は約９倍、飲食を伴う会話でも約２倍になったという。
　飯田教授は「採取したデータは今後、スーパーコンピューター富岳での解析などに活用し、新型コロナウイルス対策に役立てたい」と話した。（2020/10/16-13:30）

People release 14 times more respiratory droplets when singing karaoke while eating and drinking than during normal conversation, a study by Akiyoshi Iida, professor at Toyohashi University of Technology, has found.
   In the study, the amount of droplets emitted from a person's mouth was measured by the average number of spots per square centimeter that appeared on a water-sensitive paper attached to the inside of a mouth shield.
   The amount of droplets generated when people sang loudly at 80-90 decibels for 15 seconds while eating and drinking was 14 times the amount produced when they talked normally at 60-70 decibels for 25 seconds.
   In cases not involving eating and drinking, the amount of droplets when singing in normal voice and loudly was four and 11 times more than that during normal conversation, respectively.   The amount when people talked loudly was nine times more than that during normal conversation and twice as much in conversation involving eating and drinking.
   "We hope to use the data for analysis using the Fugaku supercomputer to support the compilation of measures against the novel coronavirus," Iida said. Fugaku, developed by Japanese government-affiliated research institute Riken and other organizations, has been ranked as the fastest supercomputer in the world.