Paul E. Becker

Silica Exposure on Construction Sites: Results of an Exposure Monitoring Data Compilation Project

Abstract To expand on the limited size and scope of construction silica exposure studies, a silica monitoring data compilation project was initiated through the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists Construction Committee. Personal silica exposure monitoring data was collected and analyzed from 13 private, research, and regulatory groups. An effort was made to collect as much detail as possible about task, tool, and environmental and control conditions so as much information as possible could be garnered. There were considerable data gaps, particularly with regulatory agency data, that represented over half of the data set. There were 1374 personal quartz samples reported with a geometric mean of 0.13 mg/m 3 and a GSD of 5.9. Descriptive statistics are reported by trade, task, tool, and data source type. Highest exposures were for abrasive blasters, surface and tuckpoint grinders, jackhammers, and rock drills. The sample period was important, with short-term samples (up to 2 hours) having considerably higher levels than midterm (2–6 hours) or longer (over 6 hours) samples. For nearly all exposure variables, a large portion of variable categories were at or over the quartz occupational exposure limit of 0.05 mg/m 3 , including 8 of 8 trade, 13 of 16 task, and 12 of 16 tool categories. The respiratory protection commonly used on construction sites is often inadequate for the exposures encountered. The data variability within task and tool was very large, with some very high exposures reported for a broad spectrum of tools. Further understanding of the conditions leading to high exposures will require more detailed documentation of the sample characteristics following database design recommendations or systematic surveys of exposure in this complex industry.

Assessment of perceived traumatic injury hazards during drywall taping and sanding

The objective of this study was to identify the drywall finishing tasks which are directly perceived as hazardous by workers. A questionnaire survey was conducted to evaluate workers’ perceived injury hazards (physical stress, fall potential, and struck by/against an object) for six finishing tasks (4 taping and 2 sanding tasks) and three items of elevated support equipment. Thirty experienced drywall finishers participated in this study. The ratings of perceived physical stress and fall potential varied significantly among the six tasks (both p values <0.05). Subjects perceived greater physical stress for the two drywall sanding tasks than the four taping tasks. Sanding skimmed drywall without the use of pole sanders, in particular sanding ceiling joints, nails, and corners was rated most stressful. Wrists/hands and shoulders were identified as the most affected body part subject to physical stress during drywall taping and sanding. Tasks performed with the use of stilts were rated as having greater fall potential than those without using stilts. The activity of putting on stilts and getting up on them was most likely to cause loss of balance. Results from this study provide information directly from experienced workers to help identify hazardous tasks and activities associated with drywall finishing. The findings will assist in focusing future research efforts on the most hazardous tasks and activities of drywall finishing. Construction workers who perform drywall installation, including taping and sanding drywall sheets, have the highest incidence/injury rate compared to any other workforce. Taping and sanding drywall sheets increases the potential for physical stress, falls and struck by and against objects. A questionnaire was designed to collect injury information directly from painters who performed drywall taping/sanding and to identify perceived hazards associated with drywall taping and sanding. Prior to this study, there has been little substantive research to ergonomically evaluate the excessive stresses and potential injuries imposed on this workforce.

The West Virginia Occupational Safety and Health Initiative: practicum training for a new marketplace.

CONTEXT Occupational medicine practice has experienced a shift from larger corporate medical departments to organizations providing services for a variety of industries. Specific training needs will accompany this shift in practice patterns; these may differ from those developed in the traditional industrial or corporate medical department setting. METHODS The West Virginia Occupational Health and Safety Initiative involves occupational medicine residents in consultation to a variety of small industries and businesses. It uses the expertise of occupational physicians, health and safety extension faculty, and faculty in engineering and industrial hygiene. Residents participate in multidisciplinary evaluations of worksites, and develop competencies in team-building, workplace health and safety evaluation, and occupational medical consulting. OUTCOME MEASURES Specific competencies that address requirements for practicum training are used to measure the trainees acquisition of knowledge and skills. Particular attention is paid to the acquisition of group problem-solving expertise, skills relevant to the current market in practice opportunities, and the specific career interests of the resident physician. Preliminary evaluation indicates the usefulness of training in evaluation of diverse industries and worksites. CONCLUSIONS We offer this program as a training model that can prepare residents for the challenges of a changing marketplace for occupational health and safety services.

Development of an ACGIH Construction Industry Silica Exposure Database Overview

(2001). Development of an ACGIH Construction Industry Silica Exposure Database Overview. Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene: Vol. 16, No. 8, pp. 781-783.

Development of an expert system to help design for worker safety

Remediation of hazardous waste may require the application of new technologies. These technologies are usually designed by experts who know very little about safety and health issues. A user-friendly, easily accessible system that is devised to assist designers during the design phase by pointing out the different downfalls of their design with respect to safety and health issues and impact, can dramatically improve hazardous waste remediation safety, reduce costs, and most important, reduce the chance of injuries.

Safety by design and future developments

With the giant leaps that technology has taken in the past few years, some professions are still largely artistic. A good example of this is the profession of design. Designers produce products that are efficient, attractive, practical, but not safe. This is because most Universities around the world fail to include safety and health issues into their curriculum. To overcome that flaw, a rule-based tool was designed to assist designers in pointing out the unsafe conditions in their designs. This tool, that utilizes expert systems technologies, took five years to reach its current version. The tool is called TEXPERT. The latest version of TEXPERT underwent a number of changes and continued growth. This years efforts resulted in the selection of a focus area and investigations into the selection of two technologies (demolition and decontamination- D&D) by which to validate the program. Validation and expansion of the rule-base continued with an emphasis on those components necessary for D&D. Research in object-oriented prototypes, determination of report-format and approach, and development of an initial visual project builder interface were also accomplished. Latest accomplishments included the development of new components, two-way interactions, and the implementation of a maintainable component database that the user interface can use to build the current library that will be available in the menu system.

Development, Validation, and Limiations of an Expert System for Safety and Health Concerns in Technology Development

Hazardous waste remediation projects, like many other technologies, are experiencing a rapid change in technology triggered by the continuous demand for better, faster, and cheaper cleanup technologies. TEXPERT, a web-based expert system for safety and health, is beginning its third year of development. The goal of the project was to provide appropriate worker safety and health information to technology designers during the design process. A group of ergonomists, safety engineers, and industrial hygienists and a group of computer systems specialists first produced a prototype of an evaluation system for a single, simple technology. Armed with this success and lessons learned, the developers expanded the system to allow evaluation of an almost endless number of technologies. The developers determined that the majority of technologies contain a finite number of components (e.g. compressors, storage tanks, etc.). Rules and knowledge bases were then developed for each component. The components act as building blocks that can be assembled by the designer into a representation of his/her technology. Each component has design questions that result in a list of probable safety/health events, recommendations and standard operating procedures to lessen the risk of the events, and probabilities and severities associated with the events. Considerations undertaken by the TEXPERT development team were the human-computer interface, the safety/health knowledge level of designers, the interaction between components, the interface between databases and the expert system shell, the time required vs. detail level of the expert system, and the vast array of technologies that could be evaluated.

Advances in safety by design

New technologies that are used on remediation sites rarely undergo testing for safety and health-related impacts on the workforce and the community. A user friendly safety and health assessment tool for design evaluation can help assure the safety for operators and the public. The system involves identifying a number of technology elements, the hazards associated with them, potential human injuries associated with the technologies, and the way they were designed. The system suggests recommendations for controlling the hazards and evaluates the interaction of technology elements. During the first year, the system was prototyped to a small existing technology of very limited scope. It showed that design for safety can indeed be possible using computer-systems. The focus of the second year has been to expand the system to accommodate 10 commonly used pieces of technologies. The system was developed to be a work-in-progress design aid.

User-friendly program for multitask analysis

Research on lifting activities has led to the design of several useful tools for evaluating tasks that involve lifting and material handling. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has developed a single task lifting equation. This formula has been frequently used as a guide in the field of ergonomics and material handling. While being much more complicated, the multi-task formula will provide a more realistic analysis for the evaluation of lifting and material handling jobs. A user friendly tool has been developed to assist professionals in the field of ergonomics in analyzing multitask types of material handling jobs. The program allows for up to 10 different tasks to be evaluated. The program requires a basic understanding of the NIOSH lifting guidelines and the six multipliers that are involved in the analysis of each single task. These multipliers are: Horizontal Distance Multiplier (HM), Vertical Distance Multiplier (VM), Vertical Displacement Multiplier (DM), Frequency of lifting Multiplier (FM), Coupling Multiplier (CM), and the Asymmetry Multiplier (AM). Once a given job is analyzed, a researched list of recommendations is provided to the user in an attempt to reduce the potential risk factors that are associated with each task.