Final Performance Report: Industrial Hygiene Program

Details

• Personal Author:
  Guffey SE ; Guffey SE
• Description:
  During the 5-year term of this grant, 2005-2010, there were 36 students enrolled in the WVU Industrial Hygiene Masters program. Of those 36, fourteen graduated, 2 dropped out, 1 switched to Safety Management (a program in our department), about 25 have not been in the program long enough to graduate, and the rest have finished coursework but not their theses. For the same period, 21 students received NIOSH funding. Of those, 6 have graduated, 7 have not had time to graduate, 1 switched to Safety Management, 2 dropped out, 5 are expected to graduate but are in their 3rd or 4th year. Three IH students who were dual majors with Safety Management (SAFM) and IH have graduated from SAFM but not yet from IH. We believe the dual major is substantially delaying graduation in IH for those students. Of the 6 who graduated in this period, all are employed in safety and health. Indeed, all of our students, except foreign students, are employed either part-time or full time in professional IH positions after completing their first year. Those who move to full-time before completing their theses often thereby delay their ultimate graduation. Nearly all of those who transferred to Safety Management graduated from that program and are currently employed in safety and health positions. Reducing the time to graduation is a high priority. To do so, we are discouraging students from taking a dual major with SAFM, and we encouraging students to start earlier on their theses. For the latter, first year students in IMSE 660 now write and defend a mini ergonomics-oriented thesis proposal (including a literature review) and complete the research by the end of the course. Each is required to write a truncated "thesis" and defend it in front of their classmates. The entire effort is critiqued and graded by the instructor. However, reducing time to graduation will probably be helped much more by the large increase in NIOSH funding for the next budget period, coupled with WVU's recent decision to waive tuition for students receiving stipends from NIOSH funds. By increasing monthly stipends from $900 to $1280/month and covering all tuition for both in-state and out of state first year students, we believe the reduced financial pressure will allow students to forego early full time work. The curriculum was strengthened, adding a required graduate level statistics course. More changes to the course requirements are planned for Fall 2010 in response to suggestions made during the Spring 2010 NIOSH site visit. Significant progress was made during the project period in the development of existing courses in the curriculum, including a radically revised course in ergonomics and the addition of modules in other courses on non-ionizing radiation, biohazards, indoor air quality, and other topics. In response to site visit recommendations, further changes to core courses will be implemented in Fall 2010, including revisions to both IMSE 561 and IH&S 725 to allow greater emphasis on exposure assessment. The laboratories for industrial hygiene research and student training were greatly improved over this period, with major additions to apparatus for research in ergonomics and in noise measurement and control (i.e., reverberation chamber, custom-built noise data acquisition hardware and custom-written data acquisition software) and with important new apparatus for respiratory protection effectiveness research (e.g., new TSI fit-testing apparatus). For the ergonomics lab, we have acquired or developed a 3D optical motion capture system, a portable full body wireless 3D kinematic system, a 16-channel wireless electromyography system, a full body musculoskeletal modeling system, a lifting strength measurement system, and a 3D static strength prediction software. At WVU, all Safety Management students (about 40/yr), MPH students in the medical school (2-5 per year), and Occupational Medicine MPH students (2-3 per year) are required to complete our industrial hygiene sampling course (IENG 561). In it they learn not only how to sample airborne contaminants, but also at least the rudiments of noise measurements and ventilation design. Hence, when they enter the workforce as safety managers or occupational physicians, they have a higher than typical working knowledge of industrial hygiene. Progress in research was also significant. The most important research areas during the project period were: (1) real time determination of noise reduction provided by hearing protectors to coal miners and others during normal work shifts, (2) relationship between fit-testing noise reductions (NR) determined before or after work to values of NR observed continuously during work, (3) effectiveness of enclosing ventilation hoods under typical work conditions, (4) changes in effectiveness due to specific modifications to enclosing hoods, and (5) 10 new ergonomic research programs started by a new faculty member. The program faced some turnover in faculty. Three ergonomists joined the faculty in this period, but the most senior of them resigned and left in May 2010. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Education Ergonomics Noise Noise, Occupational Occupational Health Safety Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Curriculum Development Industrial Hygiene Programs Noise Control Noise Measurement Training
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports   ; Grant Final Reports  
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report ; Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs ; OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health ; Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America ; North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-45
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20069758
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, T01-OH-008439, 2010 Jul; :1-45
• Email:
  Steve.Guffey@mail.wvu.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• Performing Organization:
  West Virginia University
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20100630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:43b976542daddc532993a5762025832859b58862d44b43b1dcdb0623777d7fda7bec35cf9d80bba457fdadcd18093e0ee22b64cc1caf4a8e40fa1b537ab2747a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/219259/cdc_219259_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 610.37 KB ]