A Citizen-Science Approach to Occupational Hazard Assessment

职业危害评估的公民科学方法

• 批准号: 10018622
• 负责人: Ellison M Carter
• 金额: $ 53.07万
• 依托单位: COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10018622
• 关键词: Citizen; Science; Approach; Occupational; Hazard

Abstract Comprehensive exposure assessment in the field of occupational health has been limited, historically, by a combination of technological, financial, and human factors. The cost and complexity of personal sampling technology limits a single industrial hygienist (IH) to making, at most, about 10 measurements of personal airborne exposure each day. Many hygienists can work together to produce a larger exposure dataset; however, the cost to assess exposures for every worker in a facility is exorbitant under the current paradigm. These limitations hinder our ability to identify workers at risk of overexposure; they also lead to imprecise effect estimates in occupational epidemiology. Collectively, these limitations lead to greater risks of poor health outcomes among workers. This project seeks to develop new technologic and methodologic approaches for assessing worker exposure to occupational air pollutants. We will develop a wearable exposure monitor for aerosol and vapor hazards that is immediately deployable “out of the box” with minimal user training. Further, the monitor will be designed to take reference-quality measurements of tens to potentially hundreds of different airborne compounds. We also seek to transform the practice of industrial hygiene by further leveraging support and participation of the workers themselves through a citizen-science approach to hazard identification and exposure assessment. Successful completion of this research will enable dramatically greater sample sizes for personal exposure measurements in the workplace, which, in turn, will promote more better professional judgement, more efficient hazard control, more effective epidemiology, and improved worker health. A second goal is to demonstrate the potential for citizen science to improve worker comprehension of and engagement in workplace safety culture. The project has two aims. The first is to develop a simple, inexpensive, “smart” sampling device for comprehensive assessment of personal exposures to aerosol and vapor hazards. The device will be small and easy to deploy and wear while containing quality-assurance features necessary to meet the performance of accepted standard reference methods (active flow control, fault monitoring, user compliance). The second aim is to conduct a series of field deployments to evaluate whether the new technology, when used with a citizen science approach, can promote better engagement in and knowledge of workplace health and safety among workers, organizations, and industrial hygienists. We hypothesize that the citizen-science approach will change worker- and organizational-level attitudes and behaviors relevant to occupational hazard assessment and mitigation. We also hypothesize that industrial hygienists will improve their ability to accurately assign workers to exposure control categories, when presented with the comprehensive exposure data we generate. Successful completion of this work will validate a new technology for workplace hazard assessment while demonstrating the utility of a citizen science approach to increase knowledge and awareness of health and safety in the workplace.

摘要 从历史上看，职业健康领域的全面暴露评估一直受到 技术、资金和人为因素的结合。个人抽样的成本和复杂性 技术限制了一个工业卫生员(IH)最多只能对个人进行大约10次测量 每天都暴露在空气中。许多卫生学家可以共同工作以产生更大的暴露数据集；然而， 在目前的模式下，评估设施中每个工人的风险敞口的成本过高。这些 局限性阻碍了我们识别处于过度接触风险中的工人的能力；它们还导致不准确的影响 职业流行病学中的估计。总而言之，这些限制导致了更大的健康不良风险 在工人中的结果。 该项目寻求开发新的技术和方法方法来评估工人暴露于 职业性空气污染物。我们将开发一种可穿戴式暴露监测器，用于监测气溶胶和蒸汽危害，这是 只需最少的用户培训即可立即部署。此外，该监视器将被设计为 从数十到可能数百种不同的空气中化合物的参考质量测量。我们还在寻求 进一步发挥职工的支持和参与作用，转变工业卫生作风 通过公民科学方法进行危险识别和暴露评估。成功 这项研究的完成将使个人接触测量的样本量大大增加 这反过来将促进更好的专业判断、更有效的危险控制、 更有效的流行病学，并改善工人的健康。第二个目标是展示 公民科学，以提高工人对工作场所安全文化的理解和参与。该项目 有两个目标。一是开发一种简单、廉价、“智能”的综合采样装置 个人暴露在气溶胶和蒸气危害中的评估。该设备将体积小，易于部署 和磨损，同时包含必要的质量保证功能，以满足公认的标准的性能 参考方法(主动流量控制、故障监控、用户遵从性)。第二个目标是进行一系列 评估新技术，当与公民科学方法一起使用时，是否可以 促进工人、组织和组织更好地参与和了解工作场所的健康和安全问题， 和工业卫生员。我们假设公民科学的方法将改变工人--和 与职业病危害评估和缓解相关的组织层面的态度和行为。我们也 假设工业卫生员将提高他们准确分配工人进行暴露控制的能力 类别，当与我们生成的全面暴露数据一起呈现时。成功完成这项工作 工作将验证一项用于工作场所危险评估的新技术，同时展示公民的效用 以科学的方法提高工作场所的健康和安全知识和意识。