Research

Research is integral to all aspects of the department’s work. As a graduate department, research and teaching cannot be separated. Students work in all aspects of the department’s numerous funded research programs. All faculty members carry out their own research programs (see faculty pages for details). In addition, there are several centers, institutes, laboratories, and offices affiliated with the department and devoted to research.

Project SHARRP

Occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens, particularly hepatitis A, B, C or HIV, can result in debilitating or fatal disease. Even the post-exposure prophylactic treatment can have serious health and economic consequences. Health care workers are at risk of infection from bloodborn pathogens, primarily as a result of percutaneous injuries from needles and other sharp devices but also from mucus membrane and skin exposures to contaminated blood or body fluids. Most of the research on the risks of bloodborne pathogen exposures is based on information from hospitals workers; little information exists about the risks to home health care workers. The objective of the project SHARRP is to evaluate the risks of exposure to blood and sharps injury in a large population of home health care workers by: estimating the incidence of exposures to blood and percutaneous injuries; identifying and evaluating risk factors associated with these exposures; and assessing the availability and use of medical safety devices. This work will assist home health care agencies, unions, professional organizations, and goverment agencies concerned with home health care workers by providing information that leads to more effective worksite safety interventions.

The Job Content Questionnaire is a questionnaire-based instrument designed to measure the "content" of a respondent's work task(s) in a general manner which is applicable to all jobs and job holders in the U.S. The questionnaire scales have been used to predict job related stress and coronary heart disease in the U.S. and Sweden (see references). The best-known scales are used to measure the high demand/low control model of job strain development, however over twenty other aspects of work and the individual are assessed. The scales are also relevant for studies of worker motivation, job satisfaction, absenteeism and labor turnover.

Proximity to Traffic, Air Toxic Exposures and the Development of Asthma in Children

The Mickey Leland National Urban Air Toxics Research Center has funded Dr. Woskie to examine how traffic related air toxics are associated with changes in respiratory symptoms and exhaled nitric oxide, a marker of airway inflammation, in children. The project uses a repeated measures design to study sibling pairs where the older sibling is asthmatic and the younger pre-school sibling is at high risk of developing asthma. To examine the role of traffic, a gradient of exposures will be achieved by selecting sibling pairs whose geocoded locations represent a range of traffic proximity/traffic volume categories. Sibling pairs will be identified and recruited using a large Central Massachusetts group practice / HMO, the Fallon Clinic. For each child in the sibling pair, the field team will conduct 2 home visits over a 1 year period (one in the heating season and one in the non-heating season) to collect health (exhaled NO and symptom questionnaire) and exposure data (personal exposures to volatile air toxics (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acrolein). In addition, exposures to criteria air pollutants will be collected from 2 Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MADEP) centralized monitoring sites to control for confounding. Exposure-response analysis will be conducted to examine associations between exhaled nitric oxide, symptoms and subject location relative to roadways categorized by traffic patterns as well as by various exposure metrics for the air toxics, while controlling for potential confounders including indoor allergens, weather, and criteria air pollutants. This study will evaluate how distance from roadways may result in gradients of volatile air toxic exposures that may increase asthma risk in children.

Masks as a Source Control of Influenza Viruses

Current strategies for limiting the effects of pandemic influenza focus on use of vaccines and antiviral medications, and anticipate widespread application of social distancing interventions because of the lag time for vaccine production, limited supply of antivirals, and lack of 100% effectiveness of either vaccines or antivirals. Design of effective social distancing interventions requires a detailed knowledge of the major route of influenza transmission to determine the effectiveness of such approaches. This project integrates characterization and measurement of respiratory derived influenza aerosols and the evaluation of surgical masks for mitigating transmission of influenza. 

We designed and built an exhaled breath sampling device to collect influenza particles.  With this instrument we will measure the number and size distribution of exhaled breath particles containing influenza virus during tidal breathing (nose and mouth), talking, and coughing; and measure the effect of wearing a surgical mask or N-95 respirator on the release of infectious virus. This project addresses community mitigation and protective measures directed at the spread of influenza virus. The results of this study will have implications on simple and low tech interventions applicable in both the United States and countries in other stages of development.

The Construction Occupational Health Program (COHP) at the University of Massachusetts Lowell was established in 1992 to research and identify the health hazards in the construction industry. Its objective is to develop intervention strategies to reduce the risks faced by this segment of the working population.

Most of the COHP's research to date has been done on highway construction workers employed on the reconstruction of the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel (CA/T) in Boston. Working with the building trades unions and the regional construction industry, the COHP has quantified the risks associated with several trades and professions. Specifically, studies have been conducted to identify occupational illnesses and injuries (e.g., work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMDs), pulmonary disease resulting from exposure to silica, dust and diesel fumes and noise-related hearing loss) within the construction trades. The COHP has also designed and delivered introductory ergonomics training programs for construction workers and studied the culture of construction and its role in understanding and reducing exposures to health hazards.

Dustless Grinding News (pdf)

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Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace

The Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW) is a Center for Excellence funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in 2006.  It is a collaborative research-to-practice initiative led by investigators from the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) and the University of Connecticut (UCONN). The Center’s research goal is to evaluate the feasibility, effectiveness, and economic benefits of integrating occupational health and safety with health promotion interventions to improve employee health. There is a strong emphasis on workplace occupational ergonomic interventions and on worker involvement. Outcomes of particular interest include musculoskeletal health, mental health and cardiovascular health.

Kerr Ergonomics Institute

The Lorin E. Kerr Ergonomics Institute for Occupational Injury Prevention (KEI) is the region's only comprehensive academically based research center for the study of occupational injuries and ergonomic risks with the goal of promoting injury prevention strategies as part of industrial and public policy. It also addresses the problems of lost productivity and earnings, increased medical and entitlement costs, and a lower quality of life. KEI was established in May 1991. Its directors are Dr. Laura Punnett and Dr. Robert Karasek.

Lowell Center for Sustainable Production

The Lowell Center for Sustainable Production (LCSP) develops, studies and promotes environmentally sound systems of production, healthy work environments, and economically viable work organizations. The LCSP works in partnership with workers, businesses, communities, organizations, and governments, and is engaged in numerous projects. The Co-directors are: Dr. Ken Geiser and Dr. David Kriebel.

Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute

The Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI) was created under a landmark state law passed in July 1989. The institute sponsors research, conducts training, provides technical support to governments to promote reduction in the use of toxics. Much of TURI's research focuses on developing new processes or materials to replace those that involve or generate toxics. TURI also trains Toxics Use Reduction Planners who advise Massachusetts industries how to reduce the use of toxic chemicals. Dr. Michael J. Ellenbecker is the Institute’s director.

The New England Consortium

The New England Consortium (TNEC) is the New England region’s model worker health and safety training organization. Since 1987, TNEC has delivered Hazardous Waste Site Operations and Emergency Response training to more than 15,000 workers.

TNEC is one of 20 national programs administered by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). In collaboration with the departments of Work Environment and Community Health and Sustainability, TNEC draws upon a wealth of worker health and safety knowledge.

The Biomechanics Lab is used extensively in the biomechanics courses and the Work Methods Analysis course. Master's and doctoral students also use it frequently for their research projects. Among the equipment available there are electromyographic amplifiers; manual push-pull force gauges, electronic hand dynamometers; electronic goniometers and torsiometers; strain gauge amplifiers; an illuminance meter; strength testing fixtures; lumbar motion monitor; vibrometer.

This is an instructional and research laboratory whose work focuses on exposure assessment, sampling and analysis of air contaminants. Extensive air sampling equipment including personal sampling pumps, direct reading particulate, gas and vapor monitors, and microbial air samplers are housed here. In addition, an atomic absorption spectrometer, gas chromatography, UV/Vis spectorphotometer and microbalance are used in chemical analyses done in the lab. A computer system linked to the autosamplers of the analytical equipment also supports the instrumentation in this laboratory. Other equipment includes confined space monitors, noise dosimeters, Hnu photoionization detector, and high-volume sampling pumps.

The lab is equipped with an aerosol generation system, where test aerosols can be generated to test aerosol measurement and control equipment. The lab also contains ventilation evaluation equipment and is used to teach ventilation design and evaluation methods. The equipment includes a Zeiss light microscope equipped for phase contrast, a laser particle spectrophotometer, a Wright dust feeder, and a fibrous aerosol generator.

TURI's Surface Solutions Laboratory

The mission of the Toxics Use Reduction Institute Laboratory is to test the effectiveness of greener cleaning chemicals and related equipment on a variety of substrates and soils. The Lab's goal is to identify, develop and promote safer alternatives to hazardous materials such as chlorinated and other organic solvents. The Lab uses standard industrial practices of surface preparation, cleaning, rinsing, drying and analysis in investigating alternatives. The lab is equipped with both cleaning equipment and analytical equipment to measure surface cleanliness as well as machinery suitable for a variety of substrates and soils. Most recently, the lab has focused on the evaluation of aqueous-based cleaning systems being developed as alternatives to chlorinated solvents.