OBJECTIVES The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) outlines specific requirements governing the use of respiratory protection for workers dealing with dust or other aerosolized compounds. Health care workers may be exposed to bone dust produced during otologic procedures, creating an occupational hazard. The purpose of this research was to quantify the total suspended particula...

Autoxidation is a complex abiotic degradation process, and while it has long been known and well studied in biological compounds, it has been widely overlooked in environmental samples and as a part of environmental processes. With recent observations showing the magnitude of the involvement of autoxidation in coastal environments, it has become critical to better understand how and why this de...

Exposure to particulate matter (PM) in ambient air leads to adverse health effects. To design cost effective mitigation strategies, a thorough understanding of the sources of particulate matter is crucial. We have successfully generated a web map service that allows to access information on fuel dependent health effects due to particulate matter. For this purpose, the LOTOS-EUROS air pollution ...

The origin and the nature of particulate matter which is found in the earth's atmosphere, and which is measured to evaluate air pollution, are discussed. The importance of defining particulate matter in terms of its physical structure and its chemical composition is emphasized. Attention is drawn to the surface activity of particulate matter and it is shown that, because of its micropore fine s...

BACKGROUND Epidemiological studies have found that particulate matter is associated with increases in blood pressure. Yet, less is known about the effects of specific sources or constituents of particulate matter, such as diesel particulate matter or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We evaluated associations between self-reported hypertension and residential air levels of diesel particu...

Airborne particulate matter has become an important topic of epidemiological and environmental studies in the last decade when it was understood that the particulate matter is an important determinant of deaths, especially in the elderly, even though the biological mechanisms of its effect are not quite clear yet. The United States Environmental Protection Agency regulates the admissible levels...

Particulate matter contamination is known to become wet and therefore ionically conductive and corrosive if the humidity in the environment rises above the deliquescence relative humidity (DRH) of the particulate matter. In wet condition, particulate matter can electrically bridge closely spaced features on printed circuit boards (PCBs), leading to their electrical failure. Failures attributed ...

Organic matter dynamics were studied in five streams at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory. Three of these streams drained logged watersheds, and two drained reference deciduous forest watersheds. Litter inputs to the streams draining disturbed watersheds were significantly lower than to reference streams. Additionally, while undisturbed litterfall consisted primarily of relatively refractory leaf s...

We propose a direct method of partitioning the particulate spectral scattering coefficient of the marine hydrosol based on the concurrent determination of the concentrations of particulate mineral and organic matter (the total mass of optically active scattering material exclusive of water) with the particulate spectral scattering coefficient. For this we derive a Model II multiple linear regre...

BACKGROUND A new engineering intervention measure, an embracing air curtain device (EACD), was used to increase the capture efficiency of cooker hoods and reduce cooking oil fume (COF) exposure in Chinese restaurants. METHODS An EACD was installed in six Chinese restaurants where the cooks complained of COF exposure. Before- and after-installation measurements were taken to compare changes in...