NIOSH’s Hamilton, Keogh Awards for 2004 Recognize Scientific Excellence, Service

Contact: Fred Blosser (202) 401-3749

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) presented annual awards on April 28, 2004, to recognize the scientific excellence of technical and instructional materials by NIOSH scientists and engineers, and to honor exceptional service by an individual in the occupational safety and health field.

The Alice Hamilton Award for 2004 was presented to four NIOSH publications of superior scientific merit that were produced in 2003. NIOSH presents the award each year, on the basis of rigorous reviews by panels of scientific experts from outside the Institute, for outstanding NIOSH contributions in the areas of biological science, engineering and physical science, human studies, and educational materials. The award is named for Dr. Alice Hamilton, a pioneering researcher and occupational physician.

“Every year, NIOSH makes significant contributions to the nation’s scientific literature,” said NIOSH Director John Howard, M.D. “The winners of this year’s Alice Hamilton Award were chosen by outside reviewers from that excellent body of work. As they demonstrate, NIOSH continues to advance strong science to identify, test, and use innovative ways to reduce the risk of occupational injuries, illnesses, and deaths.”

NIOSH also presented Dawn N. Castillo, M.P.H., with the 2004 James P. Keogh Award for Outstanding Service in Occupational Safety and Health. The award recognizes Ms. Castillo’s outstanding contributions that help protect the safety and health of adolescent workers on the job. These contributions include analyzing data to identify occupational risks for youths, raising awareness nationally and internationally through publications and presentations, providing scientific expertise to the U.S. Department of Labor to support regulatory protections for young employees, and collaborating with diverse youth-oriented safety advocacy groups. Ms. Castillo is chief of the Surveillance and Field Investigations Branch in the NIOSH Division of Safety Research.

The Keogh Award each year recognizes a current or former NIOSH employee for outstanding service in protecting safety and health on the job. The award is named for the late Dr. James P. Keogh, a scientist and advocate for occupational safety and health. Ms. Castillo is the first current NIOSH employee to win the Keogh Award.

The four NIOSH publications that received the 2004 Alice Hamilton Award were these:

• A practical, easy-to-understand guidance document that helps building owners, designers, engineers, and others in using filtration and air-cleaning systems to protect building environments from airborne chemical, biological, or radiological attacks.
• A report on a ground-breaking NIOSH method for rapid detection of respirable airborne mycobacteria. An innovative combination of environmental air and water sampling methodologies, the method is faster than conventional culture-based technologies and less prone to sample contamination. It will help reduce health risks associated with potential respiratory exposure to airborne bacteria from contaminated water or metalworking fluids.
• A paper that describes a novel NIOSH procedure for reducing airborne hazardous exposures by redirecting air turbulence with oscillating jets. In an experimental simulation, NIOSH found that the use of this procedure can reduce potential exposures to workers by 99 percent, even when a potentially exposed worker is upstream from the contaminant source. Computational fluid dynamics, a cutting edge numerical technique, was used to simulate the experimental flow field.
• A landmark report that provides the most well-documented estimate to date for annual deaths due to occupational diseases in the United States. This paper reports an estimated total burden of over 55,000 occupationally caused deaths per year, placing occupation as the 8th leading cause of death in the United States.

NIOSH announced the winners in a ceremony at the Institute’s Cincinnati, Ohio, research facility. The keynote speaker for the ceremony was Robert Steinbrook, M.D., a national correspondent for the New England Journal of Medicine.

For additional information on the winning publications, Alice Hamilton Award winners from past years, and other NIOSH research and recommendations, call toll-free 1-800-35-NIOSH (1-800-356-4674) or visit NIOSH on the web at www.cdc.gov/niosh

ALICE HAMILTON AWARD 2004

Engineering and Physical Sciences Category

Winner

Bennett JS, Crouch KG, Shulman SA. Control of Wake-Induced Exposure Using an Interrupted Oscillating Jet, American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal, 64:24-29 (2003).

Honorable Mention

Maynard AD, Zimmer, AT. Development and Validation of a Simple Numerical Model for Estimating Workplace Aerosol Size Distribution Evolution through Coagulation, Settling and Diffusion. Aerosol Science and Technology 37:804-817 (2003).

Educational Materials Category

Winner

Earnest SG, Gressel MG, Mickelsen RL, Moyer ES, Reed LD, Karwacki CJ, Morrison RW, Tevault DE, Delp W, Persily AK [2003]. Guidance for Filtration and Air-Cleaning Systems to Protect Building Environments from Airborne Chemical, Biological, or Radiological Attacks. U.S. DHHS, CDC, NIOSH. DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2003-136.

Honorable Mention

Palassis J, NIOSH Safety Checklist Program for Schools and Other Safety Databases. DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2004-101 October 2003.

Biological Sciences Category

Winner

Shafer MP, Martinez KF, Mathews ES, Rapid Detection and Determination of the Aerodynamic Size Range of Airborne Mycobacteria Associated with Whirl-pools. Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene 18(1): 41-50, 2003.

Human Studies Category

Winner

Steenland K, Burnett C, Lalich N, Ward E, Hurrell J. Dying for Work: The Magnitude of US Mortality From Selected Causes of Death Associated with Occupation. Amer J Ind Med. 43:461-482. 2003.