Environmental and Occupational Hygiene (EOHY)

Prolonged and/or frequent exposures to whole-body vibration (WBV) are known factors for musculoskeletal disorders. Although forklift operators are heavily exposed to WBV, there is still a lack of studies that systematically evaluate different interventions for mitigating WBV exposures.

The goal for environmental justice is for everyone to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, work, play and worship. Community-academic partnerships have been effective in addressing environmental health disparities in various settings.

Using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), this research analyzed human cadaver hair for gadolinium and mice hair samples for cadmium. This project combined fundamental bench science (analytical chemistry and animal studies), and insight into exposures to an emerging contaminant.

Anthropogenic climate change is expected to influence pest dynamics and pesticide application timing and rate, but little research has attempted to quantify the relationship or associated health impacts. Changing pesticide applications will impact risk of human exposure, particularly in agricultural communities.

Pesticide drift, or the off-target movement of pesticides, represents a key cause of not only crop damage and economic loss but also occupational and bystander illness. Nationally, drift has been shown to account for 37-68% of pesticide-related illnesses among United States agricultural workers. It remains a public health concern in the Pacific Northwest, especially among tree fruit workers.

Newborn infants delivered in a compromised health state often require transport between secondary and primary care hospitals.

The Imperial Project was a collaboration between community organizations, academia, and state partners created to investigate levels of particulate matter, a criteria air pollutant, in the highly impacted community of Imperial County. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) techniques were used to ensure that community members were engaged in each step of the research process.

Introduction: The primary objectives of this research were to: 1) assess the relationship between heat exposure and occupational traumatic injuries in Washington State; and 2) assess heat exposure and the relationship between heat stress and psychomotor vigilance and balance in a population at high risk for injuries and heat related illness.

Manganese (Mn) is found in both environmental and occupational settings, and can cause neurological conditions affecting cognition and mobility. Existing Mn exposure biomarker studies have not reached consensus on a valid and reproducible biomarker when looking cross-sectionally at biological specimens from Mn-exposed individuals.

Occupational hazards are an inherent risk present in all workplace settings. In the veterinary realm, these hazards are due in part to the human-animal interactions necessary to complete various job tasks.

Very little is known about the environmental contamination, due to soiled clinical linens, of hospital laundry facilities.

Quantifying exposure to manganese (Mn) in airborne welding fume, and the resultant dose, presents many challenges.

Risk assessment increasingly involves a more systemic evaluation of alternatives and their feasibility, risk, and benefit, in the form of alternatives assessment.

Manganese (Mn) is an essential dietary micronutrient for which excessive exposure has long been known to be neurotoxic. Historically, short-term, high-intensity exposure in occupational settings was recognized to cause acute-onset parkinsonism (PS) termed manganism.

Concern exists about the potential for low-level exposure to organophosphate pesticides (OPs) to lead to neurological and cognitive health effects. OPs are the most widely used insecticides in American agricultural, and diet is thought to be the primary route by which the general public is exposed to OPs.

Increased mortality and morbidity have been associated with extreme-heat events, particularly in temperate climates. Climate change is predicted to increase the intensity and duration of these extreme heat events.

Problem: Nanotechnology is one of the most rapidly growing fields of science and engineering, and its applications have expanded to numerous research and industrial sectors, from consumer products to medicine to energy. Nano-materials and nanotechnology promise substantial benefits. However, there are many uncertainties and concerns regarding human health and the environment.

Background: Walk-in-line pedestrians crossing the U.S.-Mexico border northbound at the San Ysidro Port of Entry (SYPOE), referred to as “Border Commuters,” may be at an increased risk of experiencing elevated traffic-related air pollution, including diesel exhaust (DE).

Lung cancer risk associated with cotton dust and endotoxin exposure was examined in a case-cohort study of female workers in Shanghai. Among 26,400 women, 628 cases and 3148 non-cases were identified from 503 factories. Information describing factory operations, dust measurements, and subjects’ work histories were abstracted from industry records.

We hypothesized that women carrying particular polymorphisms in DNA double strand break repair (DSB) genes would be more susceptible to breast cancer, particularly when exposed to ionizing radiation, a DNA DSB inducing agent.

This cross-sectional study used a self-administered questionnaire to survey healthcare workers (HCWs) at five medical centers, to evaluate reported use of CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommended respiratory infection control practices in first contact patient care settings.

The Washington aerial and airblast spray drift studies were conducted over the summers of 2002 & 2004 respectively. This dissertation focuses on spray drift from orchard airblast spraying; however, in chapter 2, we start with modeling results from an aerial application.

This dissertation contains analyses of new methods for determining the concentration and temperature of atmospheric gases from the data generated by an open-path Fourier transform (OP-FTIR) spectrometer. The concept of FTIR and the subset OP-FTIR are explained in terms of the physical instrumentation and the traditional Beer-Lambert Law based absorbance quantification.

Aluminum smelter potrooms are unique in that workplace exposures to hydrogen fluoride (HF), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and particulate matter (PM) occur simultaneously for many tasks. Peak exposure to these contaminants have become of increasing interest in discovering the etiology of respiratory health effects.

Exposure assessment in occupational epidemiological studies is difficult, and particularly challenging in dynamic industries like construction. To inform the exposure assessment strategy of a longitudinal study of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) among construction workers, this study evaluated the accuracy and performance of various assessment techniques.

Most current instruments used for personal sampling can not accurately detect mixtures of compounds in real time. This dissertation presents a novel way of using open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP-FTIR) spectroscopy to overcome this problem for evaluating personal exposures. For conditions in which workers stayed at fixed workstations, a bi-beam sampling strategy was evaluated.

The representativeness of outdoor, or ambient, particulate matter (PM) concentrations, often used as exposure surrogates in epidemiological studies, has been the subject of scientific scrutiny.