Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene

The goal of this study was to evaluate the relationship between ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and relative strength with respect to baseline for a fatiguing free dynamic task targeting the upper extremity, namely simulated order picking, and determine whether the relationship remains the same for different conditions (i.e., pace and weight) and with fatigue. Fourteen participants (7 males, 7 females) performed four sessions that included two 45-min work periods separated by 15 minutes of rest. The work periods involved picking weighted bottles from shoulder height and packaging them at waist height for four combinations of bottle mass and picking rate: 2...

Diesel engine exhaust (DE) consists of a complex mixture of gases and aerosols, originating from sources such as engines, turbines, and power generators. It is composed of a wide range of toxic compounds ranging from constituents that are irritating to those that are carcinogenic. The purposes of this work were to characterise DE originating from different engine types on a ship operating offshore, and to quantify the potential exposure of workers on the ship's helicopter deck to select DE compounds. Sampling was conducted on a Norwegian Nansen-class frigate that included helicopter operations...

In the United States, the majority of waste workers work with solid waste. In solid waste operations, collection, sorting, and disposal can lead to elevated biohazard exposures (e.g., bioaerosols, bloodborne and other pathogens, human and animal excreta). This cross-sectional pilot study aimed to characterize solid waste worker perception of biohazard exposures, as well as worker preparedness and available resources (e.g., access to personal protective equipment, levels of training) to address potential biohazard exposures...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Professional divers are exposed to unique multifactorial hazards in their working environment and adverse cardiovascular effects such as ischemia, arrythmia, stroke, and death are associated with professional diving. Cardiovascular events are aggravated by diving-induced oxidative stress and account for one-fourth of diving fatalities. The aim of this study was to measure oxidative and cardiovascular stress in a group of professional divers in Alexandria, Egypt using a panel of biomarkers. A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted between June 2017 and May 2018 at the General Naval Hospital in Alexandria...

The accuracy of exposure judgments, particularly for scenarios where only qualitative information is available or a systematic approach is not used, have been evaluated and shown to have a relatively low level of accuracy. This is particularly true for dermal exposures, where less information is generally available compared to inhalation exposures. Relatively few quantitative validation efforts have been performed for scenarios where dermal exposures are of interest. In this study, a series of dermal exposure judgments were collected from 90 volunteer U...

Cloth masks are a tool for controlling community transmission during pandemics, as well as during other outbreak situations. However, cloth masks vary in their designs, and the consequences of this variability for their effectiveness as source control have received little attention, particularly in terms of user discomfort and problematic mask-wearing behaviors. In the present studies, common design parameters of cloth masks were systematically varied to ascertain their effect(s) on the subjective discomfort and frequency of problematic mask-wearing behaviors, which detract from the effectiveness of cloth masks as source control...

Firefighters are exposed to carcinogenic and mutagenic combustion emissions, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Fire service and firefighter cancer advocacy groups recommend skin cleaning using wipes or washing with detergent and water after exposure to smoke, although these strategies have not been proven to reduce exposures to harmful combustion products like PAHs. This study assessed dermal decontamination methods to reduce PAH exposures by firefighters participating in live fire training scenarios...

California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has updated the comprehensive age-specific model of lead metabolism in humans published by Richard W. Leggett in 1993. The updated model, called Leggett + was introduced in a peer-reviewed report in 2013. The Leggett + model simulates the relationship between blood lead and exposure in the workplace. Leggett + includes a workplace exposure model comprising respiratory tract intake (workplace lead inhaled by a worker) and uptake (lead absorbed into blood from the respiratory tract plus uptake from ambient air and diet)...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Agricultural workers are more prone to noise-induced hearing loss than many other workers. Hearing protection device use among agricultural workers is low, but training can increase hearing protection device use. This work proposes a system designed to automatically inform agricultural workers when they were exposed to noises that exceed the NIOSH's (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) recommend exposure level. The smartphone-based system worn on the arm uses a noise dosimeter to measure noise exposures throughout the day to within +/- 2 A-weighted decibels of a Class 2 sound level meter...

Chronic stress at work is ubiquitous in modern societies. However, its influence on atopic dermatitis (AD) has hardly been investigated. This study aimed to elucidate the association between work-related stress and AD via a longitudinal study. The analysis comprised data from three phases (2002-2003, 2007-2009, 2017-2018) of the prospective Study on Occupational Allergy Risks (SOLAR), including 1240 young adults aged 16 to 18 years at baseline (61% female) that were originally recruited for the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood Phase II in 1995-96...

The assigned protection factor (APF) for quarter facepiece respirators is currently 5, based on fit test data from the 1970s with models no longer commercially available. The goal of this project was to evaluate the respirator fit capability of a NIOSH-approved N95 quarter facepiece elastomeric respirator with a gel-based facial seal design (Envo® Mask by Sleepnet Corporation). Human subjects were recruited from healthcare and the general population to satisfy a 25-member NIOSH bivariate panel. Subjects were fit tested with a fast fit protocol using a TSI Portacount Model 8038 in the N95 mode...

Although small spills of non-ideal organic solvent mixtures are ubiquitous undesirable events in occupational settings, the potential risk of exposure associated to such scenarios remain insufficiently investigated. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of non-ideality on evaporation rates and contaminant air concentrations resulting from small spills of organic solvent mixtures. Evaporation rate constants alphas (α) were experimentally measured for five pure solvents using a gravimetric approach during solvent evaporation tests designed to simulate small spills of solvents...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Livestock workers experience an increased burden of bioaerosol-induced respiratory disease including high prevalence of rhinosinusitis. Dairy operations generate bioaerosols spanning the inhalable size fraction (0-100 μm) containing bacterial constituents such as endotoxin. Particles with an aerodynamic diameter between 10-100 μm are known to deposit in the nasopharyngeal region and likely affect the upper respiratory tract. We evaluated the effectiveness of a hypertonic saline nasal lavage in reducing inflammatory responses in dairy workers from a high-volume dairy operation...