Research Projects- Industrial Hygiene
Active Research
Learn about our featured COHSE- IH Faculty Research at the University of Michigan
Rick Neitzel
John Meeker
Apple Hearing Study
Principal Investigator: Rick Neitzel, PhD, CIH, FAIHA
The Apple Hearing Study is a partnership between the University of Michigan and Apple to study sound exposure and its impact on hearing health. This groundbreaking study will advance our understanding of how hearing could be impacted over time by exposure to sound at certain levels. We will measure headphone and environmental sound exposures over time among our participants, and determine how these exposures impact hearing and stress levels. Our study will provide us with a better understanding of listening behavior and its overall impact on hearing health. This information will in turn help guide public health policy and prevention programs designed to protect and promote hearing health in the US and globally.
Job Exposure Matrix: Noise JEM
Principal Investigator: Rick Neitzel, PhD, CIH, FAIHA
The US/Canada Job Exposure Matrix for Occupational Noise, a resource for occupational and public health practitioners and researchers. The noise Job Exposure Matrix (JEM) consists of nearly one million occupational noise exposure measurements across 275 industries. The JEM was constructed by collecting noise exposure measurements from OSHA, MSHA, private industry, and published literature between 1963-2015. Our JEM web App can be used to filter, visualize, and download the noise exposure estimates in the JEM for the purposes of assessing exposures for epidemiological studies, occupational health interventions, and other public health-oriented purposes.
Exploring the association between occupational noise exposures and injuries
NIOSH: R21
9/30/21-9/29/23
ABSTRACT
Occupational injuries represent a tremendous burden to US workers and employers; each year, thousands of workers are killed, and millions injured, with total costs approaching $200 billion annually. Many factors may contribute to occupational injury risk, but several – noise exposure, hearing loss (HL), and use of hearing
protection devices (HPDs) – have not been adequately explored. Tens of millions of workers are exposed to noise high enough to warrant use of hearing protectors, and more than 10 million workers have HL. We propose to combine noise exposure estimates we have previously developed in our online Job Exposure Matrix (JEM)
for occupational noise in the US and Canada with national occupational injury surveillance data from both countries. This 2-year study will evaluate the relationship between occupational injuries and noise, and to assess the potential contributions of hearing loss and use of HPDs on this relationship. We propose two specific aims:
• We will assess the risk of nonfatal and fatal occupational injuries associated with occupational noiseexposure over a 20-year period (1998-2018). We will estimate risks of injuries associated with full-shift Time-Weighted Average (TWA) noise exposures over the study period, adjusting for job title and industry.
We will also calculate the attributable risk of injury due to noise exposure and evaluate whether a threshold exposure level exists above which injury risk is substantially elevated. This aim has one subaim: to explore different noise metrics for evaluation of injury risk, including mean, maximum, and standard deviation of TWA level and percent of workshifts >85 dBA and >90 dBA, measured using both US and Canadian measurement criteria. We will add the results of these analyses to our noise JEM.
• We will use published estimates of HPD use and HL to evaluate the contributions of these factors to risk of nonfatal and fatal occupational injuries. HPD use and HL prevalence estimates will be gathered from literature and available data for each job title and industry. We will then modify our Aim 1 models to include these characteristics and assess their individual and joint impacts on estimated injury risk, as well potential interactions. As with Aim 1, we will add the estimated risks to our noise JEM.
This R2P study addresses a number of priorities of the National Occupational Research Agenda, including the Cross-Sector agenda for Traumatic Injury Prevention, as well as hearing loss prevention goals of the Construction, Manufacturing, and Services sector agendas. This proposal also addresses NIOSH strategic goal 6, improve workplace safety to reduce traumatic injuries. The outputs of the study will be publications and noise- related injury risk estimates that we will add to our existing noise JEM website to allow practitioners access to actionable information. The intermediate outcomes of the study will be changes in how noise exposure, HL, and HPD use are addressed in injury and hearing loss prevention programs, and the end outcomes are reductions in occupational injuries and noise-induced HL.
The Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) - Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT): Cohort Study Site
The Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO)- Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT) Cohort Study Site in Puerto Rico