Publication in the Journal of American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers 

The study was conducted at a farm in Eastern North Carolina to validate low-cost aerosol sensors for personal and area exposure measurements. The study was led by MPH graduate Justine Olegario in collaboration with MSEH graduate Swastika Regmi and supervised by Dr. Sinan Sousan. The study shows our MPH students’ learning ability to conduct hands-on field research, perform data analysis, and publish first-author peer-review papers in nine months. The study was made possible through North Carolina Agromedicine Institute’s partnership with farmers and funding this work. This work was also funded by ECU.

Publication in the American Journal of Infection Control

The study was initiated to immediately test an alternative fabric to replace the N95 respirator to protect healthcare professionals in a local hospital, considering the shortage of N95 supplies. A customized exposure chamber was used to measure the particulate respirator efficiency of NIOSH-certified respirators and home-made respirators. Custom-made respirators fabricated from Halyard® H600 sterilization fabric material were claimed as N95 alternative with superior efficiency. The results indicated that the Halyard® H600 sterilization fabric has lower filter efficiency compared to P100 and N95, and is not recommended for use as an alternative for the N95 respirator.