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Objective: This study uses a pre- and post-training program evaluation of chiropractic interns to (1) describe changes in their frequency of occupational history taking before and after a 1-hour training and (2) to document the attitudes and beliefs regarding occupational health and history taking. Methods: All chiropractic interns at 1 clinic location completed questionnaires assessing their attitudes and perceptions regarding documenting the occupational history of their patients each trimester they were enrolled in the study. Each intern enrolled in the study for 2 or more trimesters participated in a 1-hour-long training session on taking an occupational history. The supervising clinician independently evaluated charting behaviors of interns for the duration of the study. Results: The supervising clinician assessed 20 interns' level of documenting occupational history for 202 new patient or reexamination visits. A majority of interns (85% at baseline) were interested in occupational health, and 80% believed that occupational history taking was "very important." Intern charting behaviors increased after training related to documentation of past occupation (62.9% from 32.4%) and relating the chief complaint to work (59.7% from 30.0%). Detailed occupational history taking remained low throughout the study but demonstrated a doubling in documentation after training (16.1% from 8.6%). Conclusion: Chiropractic interns and clinicians should be adequately trained in occupational health history documentation practices as they are likely to care for work-related injuries. Short training modules appear to be effective in demonstrating small changes in documentation related to occupational history taking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: As part of community‐based participatory research (CBPR) examining precarious employment and community health, academic, and community researchers used concept mapping to explore how residents in two high hardship neighborhoods perceive the impact of work on health. Methods: Between January and May 2017, 292 individuals who lived or worked in two contiguous Chicago neighborhoods were engaged in brainstorming, sorting, and rating activities. Multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis were applied, and findings were interpreted by a community‐academic partnership. Results: Brainstorming resulted in 55 unique ways that work impacts health, each of which was rated on its perceived impact on health and prevalence in the neighborhood. Four major themes emerged: Healthy Aspects of Work, Systemic/Structural Injustices, Lack of Control/Exploitation, and Psychological/Physical Stress, which was a multidimensional, cross‐cutting theme. Conclusion: These findings provide critical insight into community perceptions of the mechanisms by which work influences health, providing a basis for community‐driven, sustainable, work‐focused interventions that promote community health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to assess respiratory protection programs for aerosol-transmissible diseases in acute care hospitals for conformance with regulatory requirements and public health guidelines. Twenty-eight representative hospitals were selected by size, location, and ownership in Minnesota and Illinois. Interviews were conducted with 363 health care workers and 171 managers from high-risk departments. Written programs from each hospital were reviewed for required elements. Seventy-seven health care workers were observed donning and doffing a FFR. The most serious deficiency in many written programs was failure to identify a program administrator. Most written programs lacked adequate details about medical evaluation, fit-testing, and training and did not include a comprehensive risk assessment for aerosol transmissible diseases; tuberculosis was often the only pathogen addressed. Employees with the highest probability of tuberculosis exposure were most likely to pick a respirator for close contact, but higher levels of respiratory protection were rarely selected for aerosol-generating procedures. Surgical masks were most commonly selected for close contact with droplet disease- or influenza-infected patients; better protection (e.g., respirator) was rarely selected for higher-risk exposures. Most of the observed health care workers had access to a NIOSH-certified N95 FFR, properly positioned the facepiece, and formed the nose clip. The most frequent deficiencies were failure to correctly place straps, perform a user seal check, and remove the respirator using straps. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study, we determined occupational exposures and health impact of lead among construction workers during abrasive blasting and power tooling operations to remove lead-based paint from two bridges in suburban Chicago in the United States. Personal air samples were collected on 37-mm cellulose ester filters inside supplied air helmets during abrasive blasting and near the worker's breathing zone during power tooling. Additionally, pre- and postvenous blood samples were collected from each worker who performed power tooling. No blood samples were collected from the abrasive blasters due to the short duration of the task. Both blasters and toolers wore half mask respirators. Ambient air samples were collected on 8" x 10" quartz fiber filters using high volume samplers. Analysis of the personal samples from abrasive blasting yielded time weighted average (TWA) lead concentrations that ranged from 18 to 5,000 μg/m³ (average = 1,780 μg/m³). Lead concentrations from power tooling ranged from <13.4 to 6,276 μg/m³ (average = 294 μg/m³). The results showed that 80% and 56% of personal samples from abrasive blasting and power tooling respectively, exceeded the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's permissible exposure limit (PEL) as a TWA of 50 μg/m³ for lead in the construction industry. Four of the 16 samples collected on the Illinois Department of Transportation inspector during power tooling exceeded the PEL, without regard to respiratory protection. Consideration of respiratory protection afforded by the half-mask respirator with a protection factor of 10 showed that 67% and 3% of all personal air samples from abrasive blasting and power tooling, respectively, were above the PEL. The ambient air sampling results for abrasive blasting ranged from <0.04 to 27.2 μg/m³ (3.16 μg/m³ average) and from <0.03 to 0.42 μg/m³ (average= 0.06 μg/m³) for power tooling. All of the ambient air concentrations obtained for lead during abrasive blasting and power tooling were less than the Environmental Protection Agency's National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 1.5 μg/m³ for airborne lead (averaged over a three month period or a calendar quarter). In addition, blood lead levels did not increase during power tooling. Air sampling results showed that power tooling resulted in lower worker and environmental lead exposures than abrasive blasting. The results also showed that using abrasive blasting to remove lead-based paint from bridges presented a higher worker lead exposures that would be inadequately controlled by the use of respirators alone. From environmental public health point of view, power tooling was shown to be a preferred engineering design for the control of lead hazards in this group of construction workers. A more diligent work and hygiene practice is recommended for each worker during lead construction work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A field study was performed to develop emission rates for dust exposure at a food processing facility. Eight 2-hour periods were monitored over 2 days. Area total suspended particulate samples were collected on 37 mm polyvinyl chloride filters with 5 μm pore size according to NIOSH Method 0500. Filters were analyzed gravimetrically. Ventilation and production activity data were collected during air sampling. Two mass balance models were used to calculate emission rates. The first was an experimental mass balance model, with the mass of contaminant generated determined by air flow and concentration measurements at room exit and entry points. The second treated the work environment as a completely mixed space, utilizing ventilation and area concentration measurements. Emission rates generated from mass balance models ranged from 2.09–542 mg/min for the various processing operations and food products. Process emission rates with production activity data allow estimation of dust exposure in similar facilities, and help direct development of exposure control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overall objective of the study was to evaluate the indoor air quality at a middle school with an emphasis on characterizing baseline conditions. The focus of this article is on the relationship between occupancy and measured concentrations of carbon dioxide, and an evaluation of the use of carbon dioxide as a tracer for ventilation in the school. The school was characterized as having no health complaints, good maintenance schedules, no carpeting within the classrooms or hallways, and no significant remodeling, and its officials had agreed to allow the sampling to take place during school hours. Monitoring followed the guidelines recommended in the "Preliminary Draft: Conceptual Standardized EPA Protocol For Characterizing Indoor Air Quality in School Buildings."[sup (1)] Four indoor locations including the cafeteria, a science classroom, an art classroom, and the lobby outside the main office, and one outdoor location were sampled for various environmental comfort and pollutant parameters for one week in February 1997. A consistent relationship between hourly occupancy and corresponding carbon dioxide concentrations was seen. Carbon dioxide concentrations in the cafeteria, art room, and lobby were within specified American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) guidelines for comfort (< 1000 ppm). The science room had the highest concentrations (frequently exceeding 1000 ppm) due to high occupancy and non-functioning unit ventilators. Measured ventilation rates were within specified ASHRAE guidelines for the art room, cafeteria, and lobby. The science room, which relied on natural ventilation only, was not able to meet the ASHRAE guideline on one of the three days studied. The use of a completely mixed space, one compartment mass balance model with estimated CO[sub 2] generation rates and measured CO[sub 2] concentrations is shown to be a useful method for evaluating ventilation. Modeled effective ventilation, air changes per hour, and mixing factors reflected measured carbon dioxide concentrations and measured ventilation in each room. Mechanical ventilation afforded better mixing than natural ventilation. This study demonstrates the usefulness of collecting indoor CO[sub 2] and occupancy data when carrying out indoor air quality evaluations in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In work areas containing multiple sources of the same air pollutant,it is useful for control purposes to be able to separate out the contribution from each individual source. In this study, the chemical mass balance (CMB) receptor model was used to allocate the contributions from multiple sources to area concentration measurements in three electroplating shops. Shop 1 was a room with a single copper electroplating line; shop 2 was a large bay containing a chromium conversion coating line, a continuous chromium electroplating line, and several manual electroplating operations; shop 3 contained a piston barrel zinc coating lines. Hourly area concentrations of the composition of particulate matter were collected at a number of locations in each workroom. Activities of individual sources within each room were observed and recorded over each 1-hour interval. The receptor modeling approach uses the elemental composition of one or more source categories to determine what fraction of an area sample is contributed by each source. In most cases the CMB model predicted over 90 percent of the measured concentrations. The allocation procedure explained 100 percent of the copper measured at three locations in shop 1, with contributions of95 to 98 percent from the plating line and the rest from air outside the room. Copper concentrations contributed from plating were consistent with the emission rates determined by other methods. For shop2, a two-source model explained 100 percent of the chromium measuredat five sampling locations. Chromium residuals at two other locations were related to manual line activities not included in the model, which were also likely to involve chromium emissions. For shop 3, the percent contributions of chromium from the piston plating line and the decorative plating line were consistent with distance from each of the sources. Piston line contributions were also consistent with emission rates. Based on these findings, the CMB model is a useful methodfor [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characterization of animal housing conditions can determine the frequency of bedding and cage changes, which are not standardized from facility to facility. Rabbits produce noticeable odors, and their excreta can scald and stain cages. Our facility wanted to document measurable airborne contaminants in a laboratory rabbit room in which excreta pans were changed weekly and cages changed biweekly. Contaminants included particulate, endotoxin, ammonia, carbon dioxide, and a rabbit salivary protein as a marker for rabbit allergen. Concentrations were measured daily over a 2-wk period in a laboratory animal facility to determine whether they increased over time and on days considered to be the dirtiest. Except for ammonia, concentrations of all airborne contaminants did not differ between clean and dirty days. Concentrations were lower than occupational health exposure guidelines for all contaminants studied, including ammonia. After measurement of concentration, a model was applied to calculate mean emission factors in this rabbit room. Examples of emission factor utilization to determine airborne contaminant concentration in rabbit rooms under various environmental conditions and housing densities are provided.