Distance Education and Training on Emerging Contaminants and Technologies (DETECT)

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SUMMARY Industrial hygienists are tasked with protecting worker health. However, there are many hazardous substances which lack official guidelines related to their safe management. Thus, there is a need for professionals charged with protecting worker health to be able to increase their knowledge regarding these emerging contaminants, emerging technologies, and systems to protect worker health. This project was designed to address this need. The Distance Education and Training on Emerging Contaminants and Technologies (DETECT) project will implement online training modules and in-person research experiences to provide unique educational opportunities for education on emerging contaminants and technologies for prospective graduate students, graduate students, and industrial hygienists. The DETECT program will establish a consortium between established programs in industrial hygiene at Purdue University, the University of Toledo, the Air Force Institute of Technology, and the University of South Florida. The DETECT program will focus on identifying and characterizing emerging contaminants, use of emerging technologies to assess and monitor hazardous chemicals, and safety management systems or strategies to mitigate and prevent potential hazards. Emerging contaminants to be discussed include, but are not limited to nanoparticles, bioaerosols, hazardous algal blooms, and ototoxic compounds. There will be three main educational components of the DETECT program: online educational modules, summer research sessions, and online laboratories. First, we will create a series of for- credit and non-credit online lessons; these will be grouped together in three modules. The for-credit version of this online educational content will be incorporated into existing industrial hygiene graduate programs at the DETECT consortium institutions. The non-credit version will be available free of charge for anyone to access via the Purdue Online website. Second, we will develop and run four in-person summer research sessions. Each year, these will be hosted by a different DETECT consortium intuition and will feature a different topic. Prospective graduate students and graduate students from the DETECT consortium institutions and beyond will be encouraged to participate. These intensive sessions will include research training, laboratory tours, and the opportunity for participants to complete, analyze, and present a short research project. Third, we will develop five online laboratories and at least one virtual reality laboratory. The online laboratories will be accessible using an internet browser, and will be incorporated into the online educational modules. The virtual reality laboratory will be completed in-person by graduate students at the DETECT consortium institutions. Upon completion of this project, we will have developed and implemented training in key emerging contaminants and technologies to assess, mitigate, and prevent their impact via platforms that are accessible to a large, diverse population. This will have a significant impact on industrial hygienists and other professionals’ ability to protect workers and the public from health effects resulting from exposure to hazardous substances.