Local Positioning System For Exposure Assessment and Control

Purpose

Design and develop prototype personal-location units that can be used in conjunction with appropriate monitoring devices both indoors and outdoors to assess safety and healthy hazards in the workplace.

Research Summary

Workers in many occupations move about frequently during a typical workday. Certain workers, such as agricultural and construction workers, are particularly mobile. By linking a worker?s location throughout the workday to real-time monitors of hazardous materials, local positioning system (LPS) units with data processing capabilities could identify and document where to focus exposure analyses and control efforts. Post-processing of LPS data may enable researchers, regulatory inspectors, and industry safety and health personnel to map the location, distribution, and intensity of a hazardous material. In addition, LPS units may allow researchers to explore new means of detecting, analyzing, and controlling safety and healthy hazards.

An outdoor backpack prototype was reduced to a hand-held prototype. This smaller prototype will be field tested with real-time exposure sensors (dust, noise, temperature, and a gas monitor) to determine its performance. LPS units will use industry-standard connectors to input data from portable exposure monitors. Work conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Coast Guard Academy?s Center for Advanced Studies has shown direct-sequence spread-spectrum technology to be feasible for indoor positioning when using military frequencies. The NIOSH LPS design will allow easier set-up at research sites than do existing monitors and will allow the device to be used on unlicensed civilian frequencies. The indoor LPS should provide information on indoor air quality and noise levels.

Status

Point of Contact

Jennifer Hornsby-Myers, Health Effects Laboratory Division, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Phone: (304) 285-6358.

References

Disclaimer Statement

This research is a part of "A Compendium of NIOSH Construction Research 2002" published by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH Publication No. 2003-103). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this research are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Construction Safety Alliance.

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