Monitoring human exposures to upper-room germicidal ultraviolet irradiation.

After decades of neglect, the resurgence of tuberculosis in the United States between 1985 and 1992 renewed interest in the use of upper room ultraviolet germicidal irradiation to interrupt the transmission of airborne infections. More recently the bioterrorism threat and the appearance of new pathogens with the potential for airborne spread, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), have stimulated installations of upper-room irradiation systems. The objective is to flood the entire volume of a room above 6.

Laboratory evaluation of a potential diesel fuel interference in the determination of polycyclic aromatic compounds on dermal samplers.

Road pavers are exposed to asphalt fumes through dermal contact, inhalation, or ingestion. These fumes contain polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs), a class of compounds including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The PAHs include compounds such as pyrene and benzo(a)pyrene and a large number of other compounds of known or suspected carcinogenicity.

Residual Perchloroethylene in Dry-Cleaned Acetate: The Effect of Pressing and Extent of Inter-Dry-Cleaner Variability.

Measurements of residual perchloroethylene (PCE), a dry-cleaning solvent associated with human health effects, were made in dry-cleaned acetate cloth to enable improved characterizations of both occupational and environmental exposure. A limited sample size (25 acetate cloths) was used to explore the extent of inter-dry-cleaner variability in residual PCE and to characterize the effect of the pressing operation on residual PCE. A new method, which uses carbon-disulfide as the direct extracting agent, proved effective in the analysis of residual PCE, with a recovery-efficiency ≈ 75%.