Minutes of Meeting, NC 170 Multi-State Project
Minneapolis, Minnesota , August 6-7, 2007
NC 170: Mediating Exposure to Environmental Hazards through Textile Systems
Listserv Address: NC170-LISTS@LISTS.UMN.EDU
NC-170 Web Page: http://hosts.cce.cornell.edu/txnc170/
Administrative Adviser:
Dr. Marilyn DeLong
Chair:
Dr. Karen LaBat
Design, Housing and Apparel
240 McNeal Hall
1985 Buford Avenue
University of Minnesota
Saint Paul , MN 55108-6136
mdelong@che.umn.edu
Phone: 612-625-1219
Fax: 612-624-2750
Design, Housing and Apparel
240 McNeal Hall
1985 Buford Avenue
University of Minnesota
Saint Paul , MN 55108-6136
klabat@che.umn.edu
Phone: 612-625-3628
Fax: 612-624-2750
Vice-Secretary:
Dr. Susan Ashdown
(for Dr. Lynn Boorady)
Fiber Science and Apparel Design
327 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14850
spa4@cornell.edu
Phone: 607-255-1929
Fax: 607-255-1093
Members in Attendance : Susan Ashdown (New York), Jessica Barker (Iowa),
Huantian Cao (Oklahoma), Charlotte Coffman (New York), Marilyn DeLong (Minnesota,
Administrative Advisor), Karen LaBat (Minnesota), Ning Pan (California), Margaret
Rucker (California), Ajoy Sarkar (Colorado),and Anugrah Shaw (Maryland), Gang Sun
(California).
Agenda
Monday, August 6th
9:00-10:30
Call to Order, Announcements, Approval of Agenda
Introductions
Comments from Dr. DeLong, Administrative Advisor
Election of Officers: chair, vice chair, secretary
Date and Place for 2008 Annual Meeting
Web Site update, Dr. Shaw
10:30-10:50
Break
10:50-11:40
New proposal/project review, Dr. Ashdown
Plan of work for new project
11:40-12:00
State reports
Maryland
12:00-1:00
Lunch—McNeal 22
1:00-2:20
State Reports
California
Colorado
Missouri
New York
2:20-2:40
Break
2:40-3:00
State Reports
Oklahoma
Minnesota
3:00-3:30
Funding discussion
3:30-4:15
Tour of Human Dimensioning Lab
4:30
Adjourn
Tuesday, August 7th
9:00-10:15
Plan project work for next project by objectives
10:30 – 11:45 Meet with president (Steve Warner) and staff of Industrial Fabrics
Association International
12:00
Adjourn
August 6th meeting
Karen LaBat called the meeting to order at 9:00; attendees introduced themselves. As
Lynn Boorady (MO, secretary) was not able to attend the meeting this year Susan
Ashdown volunteered to take minutes.
In addition to members listed above Sherry Ghering from MN, Extension, also attended;
she may be interested in participating in the next five year project.
Three guests from MN also attended the meeting: Ellen McKinney, graduate student;
Dong-Eun Kim, graduate student; Dr. Karen Ryan, research associate, Human
Dimensioning Laboratory
Shu Hwa Lin from the University of Hawaii, a prospective member for the next five year
project was held up with air transportation problems. She joined the meeting later in the
day.
Dr. DeLong reviewed important information for the group. We will need a new
representative from Washington as Gladys Vaughn has retired; this is on hold for now.
Dr. DeLong expressed thanks for our work on the new proposal, and our rapid and
effective response to the request for more information and to have all members officially
signed up at a critical time in the process. She recommended that we review the funding
process in our individual states, as Congress has eliminated earmarked funding. This will
affect us unevenly; there may be more or less money available than there has been in the
past for our individual institutions for this research. Minnesota has more funding this year.
Karen LaBat has applied for some of the extra funding for a pesticide project from MN;
Sherry Ghering would participate with this project if successful.
We discussed the lack of a representative from USDA. We have had no communication
with Joseph Wysocki (his area of expertise is housing). Mary Grey is in charge of this set
of Universities, but does not know our area of research either. We discussed the
possibility of getting a representative to attend our meetings every two years. Their travel
funds are somewhat restricted but should allow some participation. Another possibility is
setting up conference calls to us at our meeting. This connection with Washington, with
access to relevant topics to our project, can also happen through e-mail. Dr. DeLong will
keep working on this.
Nominations for chair, vice chair (a new officer for the group adopted in the new
proposal), and secretary were solicited. Charlotte Coffman was nominated and elected as
chair, Gang Sun as vice chair, and Jessica Barker as secretary. The group approved the
University of California, Davis as the location for the meeting next year. Dates for the
meeting were set as August 4-5 2008, alternate dates are 7-8. Gang will check the venue
at California and e-mail members with the final determination of the dates for the
meeting. As initiated last year, the current chair is responsible for compiling and filing
the annual report the year that they conduct the meeting, so Karen LaBat will file this
year’s (five year) report, and Charlotte Coffman will file next year’s annual report.
A discussion of recruiting efforts followed. Faculty from Philadelphia University were
contacted by Minnesota recently. They said that they would come as guests, and report at
our meetings if desired, but felt that participation in the research would be a conflict of
interest.
The final report for the five year project ending this year was discussed. This report is
due in 60 days (in place of the annual report). Each member should write a summary of
their work on the project. These summaries should be submitted to Karen LaBat by
September 1st. NY offered to organize the references for this report from the 5 years of
annual reports, so only the text for the report is needed from each station unless you have
a publication that should be included that is not in any of the annual reports.
The next order of business was an update of the plans for the website. This site will be
migrated from NY to MD where there will be better resources for design and upkeep.
Anugrah Shaw and her colleague Courtney Harned (cpharned@umes.edu) will organize
and oversee the site. Information from old site has been moved to the new site to work on
the design in anticipation of the transition.
Members need to check the old site (note the different url http://hosts.cce.cornell.edu/txnc170) to check for outdated images or information. A new
design will be created with one top image, designed for all PPE users. Captioned pictures
on the left will rotate; these pictures will show research at our different sites.
New, better images for the members page are needed. Send hard copy or digital images to
MD. Some current images are not a high enough quality. A 3” X 5” shoulder shot is
recommended.
Discussion of the target viewer of the site (researchers or users of PPE?) and the range of
topics (pesticide applicators, first responders, firefighters, sun protection?) followed. We
also discussed the relationship between this site and the database site to be developed
with CA as the lead in the next five year project.
The CA site, partially funded by NTC, will be focused on creating a database. Users of
the site will be PPE users, manufacturers, interested groups, researchers, and funding
agencies. Further funding to support the development of this site will be sought from
NSF once a demonstration site is developed. CA is collecting information on medical
protective clothing among other sub groups including wildland and structural firefighters.
Different products are being targeted including reusable and disposable PPE. An IT
designer is working on the site and the once the first few pages are designed and
information is collected it will be tested on a web server. The eventual goal is to have the
site managed by a 3rd party (this goal is essential to obtain NSF funding). The site must
be actively maintained and open to the public for free. CA has found a company ready to
maintain the site for free in return for sidebar space on the site to earn income for
maintenance.
Anugrah Shaw presented the advantages of working with a common design for the two
sites, with a left side navigation area for individual pieces, and a top navigation area for
broader topics (user groups).
All sites will be linked to one another, but each site will have a different front page,
maintenance contract, and system.
.
It was decided that for clarity, the NC-170 site should be for researchers or users, and
include research and extension documents from our group. Current sections include
pesticide PPE, engineering controls, interiors, laundry, and sun protection. The group
does not have much information on first responders yet, so this will not be a user group
initially.
Links to other sites from the NC-170 site will be maintained. Pieces will be archived
when outdated or no longer relevant. An archive will also be created for former members.
The sun protection section may be archived, depending on how active MN will be in
generating and updating information for this site. The site will continue to keep the
business of the group, as this provides an easy access to reports and proposals.
Each station should review and send updates to text and information on research to MD
by October 1st. Images for rotating images of our work with captions and our head shots
should be sent to MD by September 1st
Gang Sun and Anugrah Shaw will keep communicating as the sites are designed and
linked.
Susan Ashdown gave a brief history of the NC-170 research group, and reviewed the
objectives of new the proposal.
Discussion of the new proposal centered on the best methods for communication of our
work to users, including lack of use of the Internet by NY agricultural PPE users (only
20% of users look at the Internet as their main source of information). CA was interested
in finding out if this is also true in CA. This is also a question that should be asked of
firefighters.
Objective leaders were chosen for the new study: Objective 1 – Gang Sun, Objective 2 –
Susan Ashdown, Objective 3 – Charlotte Coffman.
Progress Reports were then presented from each attending station – see Appendix.
The new members introduced themselves and discussed their background and work
relevant to this research group.
Dr. Jessica Barker (IA):
Jessica Barker completed her graduate work at Florida State, a wear test of ballistic vests
comparing a vest with a novel fabric to a traditional vest. She is also interested in user
interactions: how police make vests more comfortable, and how these adjustments can
compromise function, fit, comfort, and thermal properties
She is interested in functional design, and introducing the teaching of functional design at
Iowa. She is currently working on acquisition of a body scanner for research activities.
She is also developing partnerships with the Virtual Reality group at Iowa, and is
interested in research on how to use VR in fit testing
Her appointment may eventually be adjusted to reduce teaching or research in order to
add an extension component.
Dr. Shu-Hwa Lin (HI):
Shu-Hwa Lin has been involved in several functional apparel research projects. She has
worked with ski wear, and has worked in industry for 30 years as a patternmaker,
production facilitator, in quality control, and fitting garments. She is interested in the
design of functional clothing for tropical climates.
Jessica Barker is already officially a member of the group as she joined when the new
proposal was submitted. Shu-Hwa Lin was voted in as member of the group. She will
work on Objective 2 of the new proposal.
The group then discussed funding issues. Gang Sun described a call earlier this year from
the Army for research proposals regarding personal protection. Two rounds of this call
have occurred. The second call allowed more futuristic proposals, but still required
readiness in three years.
A CDC (NIOSH) symposium for protective clothing was discussed. Gang will send
information about this to the group.
MN met with Al Levine, in charge of an obesity group at the time, to discuss the use of
the 3D body scanner for obesity research. Though this is not protective clothing it has a
health focus, and could be connected to education programs for young people. IA
discussed the fact that companies that make protective clothing have sizes from XXS to
8XL, to supply people in parts of the country where obesity is a problem.
Gang will contact NPPTL to look for common interests and may also invite them to the
California meeting. Recent funding activity from the Dept of Public Health concentrates
on protective clothing for public protection.
The group adjourned for a tour of the University of Minnesota Human Dimensioning Lab.
August 7th meeting
The minutes from 2006 were reviewed, and it was determined that all work on the
previous project is complete except for some final development and testing of the
coverall, which is underway and will be completed in the coming months.
A discussion was held on the possibility of sponsoring a conference, including other
regional researchers in protective clothing, S1026. Such a conference would take a lot of
organizing. We would also want to include NPPTL, IFAI, others. Karen will follow up
with Ruth from IFAI about possibility of conference.
Objective 1 and 3, and Objective 2 of the new proposal met as subgroups to discuss the
objectives and to plan next year’s work.
Kay Obendorf joined the discussion of Objective 1 by telephone. Work will continue on
the multifunctional Nomex fabrics.
The members of Objective 2 will collaborate on the development of a format to conduct
focus group meetings with firefighters to gather information on the performance and fit
of turnout gear, and to see what resources are available at their station to assist with
conducting or transcribing focus group research. The social research group at OK could
review our focus group questions and give us feedback. Once the format is developed
each station will conduct one focus group meeting with 5 to 10 firefighters at their
location. Suggested questions for the focus group are due Sept. 1st.
Appendix
Abbreviated State Reports of NC-170 Committee
Ajoy K. Sarkar, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO.
The UV protective ability of a knit bamboo fabric was studied. Raw bamboo fabric was
found to afford poor protection against UV radiation. Three different treatments viz.,
dyeing; finishing with a UV absorber; and one-bath simultaneous dyeing and finishing
with UV absorber were optimized with regard to the concentration of UV absorber and
dye. The best results were obtained with simultaneous dyeing and finishing with UV
absorber; at a 4% owf concentration of dye and UV absorber the fabric was rated
“Excellent UV Protection”. Bamboo is a relatively new apparel textile material and has
not been previously characterized for its UV protective properties. Contrary to claimed
reports raw bamboo fabric does not possess good protection against UVR. However, the
Ultraviolet Protection Factor can be significantly enhanced by judicious dyeing and
finishing treatments.
Margaret Rucker, University of California, Davis, CA
email: mhrucker@ucdavis.edu. Tel: 530-752-2018, Fax: 530-752-7584
Ning Pan, University of California, Davis
email: npan@ucdavis.edu. Tel: 530-752-6232, Fax: 530-752-7584
Gang Sun, University of California, Davis,
email: gysun@ucdavis.edu. Tel: 530-752-0840, Fax: 530-752-7584
Work has continued on antibacterial processes for clothing and other textile products.
Another area of emphasis has been thermal transfer problems in porous media. A website
for the protective clothing network is under construction.
A survey covering user perceptions of recycled fibrous materials and their virgin
counterparts suggests that while recycled fibers may be seen as similar to virgin fibers in
terms of functional features such as durability, there are some significant differences with
respect to non-functional characteristics.
Anugrah Shaw, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anne, MD
e-mail: ashaw@umes.edu
Phone: (410) 651-6064
Fax : (410) 651-6285
ASTM and ISO performance specification drafts were revised and submitted for balloting.
Interlaboratory testing was initiated for ASTM F2130-01. Protocol and materials were
provided to participating laboratories. A website was developed for the interlaboratory
study to assist with dissemination of information, training and data collection. Revised
and updated the online database.
Karen LaBat, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN
e-mail: klabat@umn.edu
Phone: 612-624-3628
Fax: 612-624-2750
The Minnesota Sun Smart program, instituted in 1994, was up-dated and presented to
outdoor workers. A collaborative project with the University of Minnesota Laboratory for
Health and Human Performance in Extreme Environments (EE Lab) led to improved fit
of several liquid cooling ventilation garments worn by astronauts (torso suit, hood, and
glove). A body size variation study based on BMI (body mass index) was conducted as a
basis for developing patterns that more accurately fit a full range of sizes. A doctoral
student developed a 3D based pattern drafting method for pants. Basic research using
motion capture technology was implemented to assess restricted or enhanced motion in
PPE.
Susan Ashdown, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
e-mail: spa4@cornell.edu
Phone: 607-255-1929 Fax: 607-255-1093
S. Kay Obendorf, Cornell University
e-mail: sko3@cornell.edu
Phone: 607-255-4719 Fax: 607-255-1093
Charlotte Coffman, Cornell University
e-mail: cwc4@cornell.edu Phone: 607-255-2009 Fax: 607-255-1093
A polyurethane (PU) membrane surface was chemically engineered to add functional
antimicrobial agents (e.g. N-halamines) onto the surface using a two step process; first
grafting 2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-imidozalidin-4-one (TMIO) to the surface and then using a
chlorination process to transform TMIO into N-halamine. Grafting was confirmed by
attenuated total reflectance mode Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) and 1H
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectra. Antimicrobial activities were determined
by testing with Gram-negative bacteria E. coli and Gram-positive bacteria S. aureus.
A chlorinated PU control membrane and TMIO modified PU membrane showed
antimicrobial properties with the later being more powerful particularly against S. aureus.
For the product development study, a database of about 100 photographs of agricultural
workers working with pesticides was categorized to determine the most common fit
problems and areas of stress for the coveralls. A set of 10 active body positions was
identified from this database for use in the final testing of the prototype coverall design.
Three initial prototype coverall designs were developed with the goal of maximizing
movement without sacrificing comfort or protection, and minimizing the overall
silhouette to reduce the incidence of tears from catching. Methodologies for fit
assessment of garments from 3D body scans were further developed. Two approaches
were used to validate visual scan fit assessment, direct measurement of scan data
compared to the visual scan fit assessment and comparison of fitting alterations of actual
garments to visual scan fit assessments of the same garments.
Outreach on PPE continues through certification training, exhibits, publications, websites,
and telephone responses. The current NC-170 Regional Research website
(http://hosts.cce.cornell.edu/txnc170) was moved to a new server maintained by Cornell
Cooperative Extension. Website hits total 3584 with March and October receiving the
most visitors and January the fewest.
Huantian Cao, Oklahoma State University
e-mail: huantian.cao@okstate.edu Phone: (405) 744-3015
Exploratory research was conducted into the use of a textile fabric as the sensing surface
for chemical detection using colorant porphyrins, which will have spectral shift when
exposed to toxic chemicals in environment. Carbaryl, a carbamate compound, was
detected using Meso-tetra(4-sulfonatophenyl) porphyrin (TPPS4) in solution and when
dyed on cotton fabric. When dyed onto mercerized cotton fabric, carbaryl can be detected
at 8ppm level by TPPS4.