NIOSH Engineering Controls Program Protects Workers from Emerging Hazards

On September 6, 2017, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) published a Program Performance One-Pager entitled NIOSH Engineering Controls Program.  The Program’s activities include providing engineering control recommendations to protect workers from emerging hazards in nanotechnology and advanced materials used in additive manufacturing/three-dimensional (3D) printing.  The Program is currently working to:

• Complete laboratory evaluations of ultrafine particle emissions and engineering controls for 3D printing of materials that include carbon nanotubes and graphene in filaments;
• Complete evaluations at advanced manufacturing workplaces and publish engineering control recommendations to reduce worker exposure to ultrafine particles; and
• Publish three NIOSH engineering control workplace design solution documents to highlight effective engineering control approaches for the most common nano-manufacturing workplaces.