In 2013, one in five reported nonfatal occupational injuries occurred among workers in the health care and social assistance industry, the highest number of such injuries reported for all private industries. In 2011, U.S. health care personnel experienced seven times the national rate of musculoskeletal disorders compared with all other private sector workers. To reduce the number of preventabl...

The workplace is recognized as a setting that can profoundly influence workers’ health and well-being (1,2). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) workplace health promotion efforts address cancer prevention by focusing on cancer screening programs, community–clinical linkages, and cancer risk factors (eg, tobacco use, physical inactivity) that also influence risk for other chron...

NIOSH/NCI (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and National Cancer Institute) developed exposure estimates for respirable elemental carbon (REC) as a surrogate for exposure to diesel exhaust (DE) for different jobs in eight underground mines by year beginning in the 1940s-1960s when diesel equipment was first introduced into these mines. These estimates played a key role in sub...

The objectives of this study were to evaluate how lifting capacity and subjective preferences are affected by different lifting speeds. The maximum lifting capacity of lift was determined with three independent variables, lifting speed, lifting technique, and lifting height. Questionnaires were evaluated after the experiment by the participants for the lifting speed preferences. This study foun...

Purpose: Low back pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders, and lifting is one of its risk factors. The activities of lumbar muscles as the main muscles involved in lifting are important with regard to identification of the allowable limits and the injury mechanisms as well as the motor control aspects. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the lifting speed on the lumb...

This paper proposes a novel lifting method which converts the standard discrete-time linear periodic system to an augmented linear time-invariant system. The linear quadratic optimal control is then based on the solution of the discrete-time algebraic Riccati equation associated with the augmented linear time-invariant model. An efficient algorithm for solving the Riccati equation is derived by...

Polydisperse dioctyl phthalate (DOP) aerosols are employed for testing filter penetration with loading of Rand P-series particulate filters for National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) certification. Penetration for filters must not exceed NIOSH allowed maximum levels during the entire loading of 200 mg DOP indicating no filter degradation. Degradation of respirators loaded...