PURPOSE Beryllium's classification as a carcinogen is based on limited human data that show inconsistent associations with lung cancer. Therefore, a thorough examination of those data is warranted. We reanalyzed data from the largest study of occupational beryllium exposure, conducted by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). METHODS Data had been analyzed using str...

Respiratory diseases from occupational exposures have a major adverse effect on worker health, with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) estimating that deaths from work-related respiratory disease and malignancies account for about 70% of all occupational disease mortality. NIOSH has a range of research activities in the Respiratory Diseases Research Program (RDRP)...

In 1981, NIOSH began investigating the potential reproductive health effects resulting from exposures to a class of organic solvents known generically as glycol ethers (GE). This research was begun as a result of the NIOSH criteria document development program which revealed little data available on the health effects of glycol ether exposure. Toxicologic research was begun by NIOSH and other r...

OPTIMIZER is an on-line application that optimizes the codon usage of a gene to increase its expression level. Three methods of optimization are available: the ‘one amino acid–one codon’ method, a guided random method based on a Monte Carlo algorithm, and a new method designed to maximize the optimization with the fewest changes in the query sequence. One of the main features of OPTIMIZER is th...

This article presents an overview of a strategy for assignment of hazard-specific skin notations (SK), developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). This health hazard characterization strategy relies on multiple SKs capable of delineating systemic (SYS), direct (DIR), and immune-mediated (SEN) adverse effects caused by dermal exposures to chemicals. One advant...

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and European Norms (ENs) employ different test protocols for evaluation of air-purifying particulate respirators commonly referred to as filtering facepiece respirators (FFR). The relative performance of the NIOSH-approved and EN-certified 'Conformité Européen' (CE)-marked FFR is not well studied. NIOSH requires a minimum of 95 a...

This paper gives an overview of a participatory ergonomic intervention aimed at reducing low back pain cases in the dispatch department of a catalogue and e-commerce retail company. Based on the findings of the ergonomic analysis and design committee, the company's own employees redesigned the assembly line's layout. As a result of these changes two job tasks that involved manual material handl...

The aim of this study is to evaluate the physical demands of the manual materials handling method that is currently used in a soft drink beverages company for palletizing and depalletizing soft drink beverage boxes, to assess the potential risk of injury and to recommend injury prevention strategies. The study utilizes three methods of evaluation namely, biomechanical, physiological and psychop...