Dr. Hauser is devoted to full-time occupational health research following the completion of his residency training and doctorate of science degree in occupational health. Currently, he is a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health in the Occupational Health Program. This SERCA would be beneficial to his goal of developing an academic career in occupational medicine. The award would allow him to further develop skills in designing and implementing longitudinal epidemiologic studies of occupational exposures and lung disease, ultimately developing skills necessary to compete for R01 funding from NIOSH. This award will provide funding to conduct a prospective epidemiologic investigation of the chronic effects of fuel-oil ash exposure in utility workers and biolermakers, two trades with a large number of workers exposed to fuel- oil ash. Nationwide, tens of thousands of utility workers and over twenty-five thousand boilermakers are exposed to fuel-oil ash. Preliminary work on these workers has shown an association between short- term (days/weeks) exposure to fuel-oil ash and loss of lung function. Although these effects may be partially or fully reversible, it is unclear whether long-term episodic exposure is associated with a chronic loss of lung function. The proposed study is designed to determine: 1) if chronic episodic exposure to fuel-oil ash is associated with an accelerated decline in lung function, a risk factor for chronic obstruction pulmonary disease and disability, and 2) whether host characteristics (such as airway responsiveness, atopy, serum IgE and blood eosinophil counts) are risk factors for an accelerated decline in lung function. Understanding the relationship between host characteristics, fuel-oil ash exposure and an accelerated loss of lung function will allow for the identification of workers at increased risk of impaired lung function, allowing interventions for the prevention of workplace respiratory disease for all exposed workers. The results of this study will provide information that will improve NIOSH's understanding of the adverse health effects of occupational exposure to fuel-oil ash and may be used to ultimately solve an occupational health problem.
