Andrew Perkins, CIH was awarded the Hugh Talbert Merit Award for his many years of dedication, as a long-standing committee member of the Southeast Mine Safety & Health Conference.
Several IH students were recipients of the Deep South Center Scholarship:
At the AL Chapter of ASSP annual awards luncheon on May 14, 2021, several of our UAB and Auburn University students won scholarships along with Allyn Holladay, the Deep South Center Deputy Director and Continuing Education Director, who won the SPY award for academics. Congratulations!
2021 Ergonomics Best Paper Award by the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors:
Mehdizadeh A, Vinel A, Hu Q, Schall Jr MC, Gallagher S, Sesek RF. (2020). Job rotation and work-related musculoskeletal disorders: a fatigue failure perspective. Ergonomics. 63(4), 461-476. doi: 10.1080/00140139.2020.1717644
Recent Publications: 2021
Congratulations to our Recent OSE MISE Graduates!
The Deep South Center ERC was honored to host Dr. Zeke McKinney on October 1, 2021, to speak on Disparities in Occupational Health. Dr. McKinney is the Program Director for HealthPartners Institute where he holds an Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency, and he is an Affiliate Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.
Monday, June 14 from 1245 – 1345 pm
Dr. Ellen Hahn is an environmental health nurse researcher from the University of Kentucky College of Nursing. Her work on tobacco control changed policy so that cigarettes, cigar, and vaping use was banned in restaurants, bars, and other public venues in Kentucky. At the time, it was the largest tobacco-producing state in the country. While she still focuses on tobacco control, she is now researching the effects of radon. Dr. Hahn is on the OHN advisory board for the Deep South Center for OHS, is the OHN Director for the Central Appalachian ERC, and will be speaking next week via ZOOM at the UAB SON PhD Program Intensive.
https://uab.zoom.us/j/96206747114?pwd=c1NmNks5b00yTVlEd1Fpclh2MkRBQT09
Faculty Presenting: Monday, May 26
Research Roundup Ergonomics ~ 10:00 a.m.–10:30 a.m. The Shoulder Tool: A New Risk Assessment Tool for Shoulder MSDs. Sean Gallagher, Auburn University
Research Roundup Sampling and Analysis 2:30 p.m.–3:00 p.m. Thermal Properties of Buckypaper Sorbent used in Newly Developed Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Sampler. Claudiu Lungu, University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Graduate Students Presenting: Tuesday, May 25
Connecting Students and Career Professionals, Part 1 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Moderator: Jacob Shedd, University of Alabama at Birmingham. Presenters: Alessandra Pratt, University of Iowa; David McMahan, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Vishal Nathu, University of Cincinnati.
UAB Doctoral Student Research Presentations: 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Moderator: David McMahan, University of Alabama at Birmingham. Presenters: Jacob Shedd; Margaret Summers; Nathan Chen, University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Posters Presentations
Mon, May 24: 3:15 PM – 4:15 PM
Transmission of Hand-Arm Vibration (HAV) during Backpack Blower Operations, Chris Hughes, MPH
Backpack Blower Noise Exposure Assessment: A Laboratory Simulation, David McMahan
Development of a Fit Matching App: Prioritizing Gap Measurement Locations between Safety Eyewear and the Wearer’ Face, Erin Lindsey
Noise Exposure during Laboratory Simulation of Grass-Trimmer Operations, Andrew Spivey
Alumni Presenting
Monday, May 24
Tuesday, May 25
Respirator Fit Testing With Controlled Negative Pressure 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Presenters: Stephanie Lynch, OHD, LLLP.
Dr. Mark Schall and J. Michel, were awarded Best Paper in the Occupational Ergonomics Technical Independent Research Category at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society; 2020 October 5-9, in Chicago, IL for their paper: Leadership Styles in Participatory Ergonomics Programs: A Bibliometric Analysis.
Publications:
N. Gupta, V. Kozlovskaya, M. Dolmat, B. Yancey, J. Oh, C. T. Lungu, E. Kharlampeiva. 2020. Photocatalytic Nanocomposite Microsponges of Polylactide-Titania for Chemical. Remediation in Water. ACS Appl. Polym. Mater. 2(11): 5188-5197
Mishra S, McClure L, Golla V, Guddattu V, Lungu CT, Sathiakumar N. 2020. Relationship between Diabetes Mellitus and Indoor Air Pollution: an Exploratory Analysis. International Journal of Noncommunicable Diseases. 5(4):165-170. DOI: 10.4103/jncd.jncd_38_20
Bani Hani D, Huangfu R, Sesek RF, Schall Jr MC, Davis GA, Gallagher S. (2020). Development and Validation of a Cumulative Exposure Shoulder Risk Assessment Tool Based on the Fatigue-Failure Theory. Ergonomics. doi: 10.1080/00140139.2020.1811399
Chen H, Schall Jr MC, Fethke NB. (2020). Measuring Upper Arm Elevation using an Inertial Measurement Unit: An Exploration of Sensor Fusion Algorithms and Gyroscope Models. Applied Ergonomics, 89, 103187. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2020.103187
Schall Jr MC, Chen Peter, Evidence-Based Strategies for Improving Occupational Safety and Health among Teleworkers During and After the Coronavirus Pandemic, Human Factors, https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720820984583
Yousif Abulhassan, Gerard A. Davis, Considerations for the transportation of school aged children amid the Coronavirus pandemic. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Elsevier.
Mark C. Schall Jr., Xuanxuan Zhang, Howard Chen, Sean Gallagher, Nathan B. Fethke, Comparing upper arm and trunk kinematics between manufacturing workers performing predominantly cyclic and non-cyclic work tasks, Applied Ergonomics, Volume 93, May 2021, 103356.
S. Shedd*, A. J. Hauser, W. W. Keuhaster, S. Ranjit, E. L. Floyd, J. Oh, C. T. Lungu. Determining the Thermal Properties and Buckypapers used in Photothermal Desorption. In review
R. Thaper, J. Oh, R. Sesek. Performance of Smart Device Noise Measurement Applications: A Literature Review. In review.
PROJECTS:
OHN Program Director, Dr. Karen Heaton and her team leveraged a formal clinical partnership with UAB Medical Center (UABMC). This resulted in scholarly projects completed by OHN’s first two DNP graduates: Chris Stallard, Identifying and decreasing sharps injuries through root cause analysis in a large urban hospital system; and Josh Ades and Chris Smith, Anesthesia provider diversion prevention: A knowledge and needs gap analysis.
Dr. Mark Schall, is the co-PI of a contract through the US Army Natick Soldier Systems Center that aims to systematically evaluate lower extremity motor adaptations for joint actuation.
The DSC continues to work with trainees, businesses, and stakeholders—improving processes and assuring safety as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. All of our programs have been invested in efforts to protect workers over the last 9 months. UAB Occupational Health Nursing (OHN) faculty have provided direct care to COVID patients. Also, in OHN one of the recent research projects on Long-haul Trucking has also incorporated COVID. Meanwhile, the Auburn OSE/OIP faculty and students have been working on a vaccination process improvement project—as well as creating hazard labels for a distillery. The AU team also conducted a safety-based risk analysis on a CPAP to ventilator converter in response to the pandemic. In IH, the faculty and students continue to work with activated carbon fibers in respiratory protection and creating a fit matching app for eye protection. The IH Lab also set up testing for N95 efficiency after disinfection. The Continuing Education program successfully completed a project providing respiratory fit testing workshops to over 300 employees of the Alabama Nursing Home Association.
Savannah Jones graduated with her MPH in Industrial Hygiene in December!
At Auburn, Warner Brines and Corey Geter completed the OSE Graduate Certificate Program. Congratulations!
The DSC welcomes our new students:
Jasna Rosser-Williams
Kelvin Dam
Rachel Michel
