Dust Control – Soil Stabilization – Erosion Control

In the construction trade, respiratory disease, often resulting in disability or an increased risk of cancer, may be a major public health concern. Studies led by Deborah Young-Corbett, a faculty member in Virginia Tech’s Faculty of Construction, have shown that specific sorts of sanding tools are highly effective in reducing the dust that causes these health hazards, however the business’s usage of the accessible technology remains very low.

To seek out out why, Young-Corbett conducted follow-up studies with construction business owners and employees, and found a range of barriers to the adoption of technology that lead to better environments. She said they related to efficiency, labor quality, and perceptions of benefits and risks.

One of her contemporaries, Theodore Koebel of urban relationships and designing at Virginia Tech has additionally conducted work in this subject and has found a number of methods to encourage the construction industry to adopt the new technologies.

The 2 have now teamed on a new proposal to expand upon this novel work, and to boost the adoption of engineering controls in the development trade to boost the health of the workforce. Joining them is Enid Headen Montague, a member of the industrial engineering department at the Campus of Wisconsin-Madison. Under a Research-to-Practice (R2P) project, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has decided to finance the next section of this work.

Young-Corbett, the principal investigator on the project, started operating in this subject when she was pursuing her doctorate in industrial engineering/industrial hygiene which she obtained in 2007. Amongst her honors as a Ph.D. aspirant, she was a NIOSH fellowship beneficiary for 2006-07. She led a lead project within the Virginia Tech Center for Innovation in Construction, Safety and Health on the evaluation of dust control technologies for drywall finishing operations. She additionally received a NIOSH coaching scholarship from Johns Hopkins University to enhance her work on this subject, which served as the training material for her dissertation.

Within the two years ever since her arrival on the engineering faculty at Virginia Tech, she has brought in some $1.2 million in sponsored analysis, with a private share of more than $700,000. This particular grant for $583,125 is half of the NIH Research Venture Grant Program or an RO1. RO1s, the initial NIH grant mechanism, give support for health-connected analysis and development. And although a dramatic upsurge in biomedical research has taken place at Virginia Tech, it is uncommon for an subordinate professor to obtain an NIH RO1.

Young-Corbett explained that for decades "drywall finishing operations have been associated with worker over-exposure to dust. This dust contains known particulate respiratory health hazards such as silica, talc, mica, and calcite. Despite the existence of effective engineering controls, like ventilated sanders and low-dust drywall compound, worker exposures persist."

Specially, drywall finishers and laborers have a statistically higher possibility of death from cancer of the pharynx, lung, and respiratory tuberculosis, according to preceding studies, Young-Corbett, the director of the Occupational and Construction Hazard Reduction Engineering Laboratory at Virginia Tech, added.

Nonetheless, a previous NIOSH Hazard Management Study found that vacuum sanding systems reduced drywall dust levels by eighty to 97 per cent. This evaluation of 5 commercially obtainable ventilated drywall-sanding systems found that four of the 5 systems reduced dust concentrations by more than ninety%.
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