Perceived Benefits and Barriers of a COVID-19 Test to Stay Program in a School District Serving Black or African American People With Low Income, December 2021.

OBJECTIVES: Quarantine after exposure to COVID-19 has resulted in substantial loss of in-person learning in schools from prekindergarten through grade 12. Test to Stay (TTS), a strategy that limits the spread of SARS-CoV-2 while prioritizing in-person learning, requires substantial investment in resources. The objective of this study was to assess the perceived benefits, barriers, and facilitators of implementing TTS in an urban school district in the Midwest serving primarily Black or African American people with low income. METHODS: In December 2021, we used a concurrent mixed-methods approach to understand perceived benefits, barriers, and facilitators of implementing TTS by combining quantitative analysis of telephone surveys conducted with parents (n = 124) and a qualitative inquiry involving key informants from the school district and local health department (n = 22). We analyzed quantitative data using descriptive statistics. We used thematic analysis to analyze qualitative data. RESULTS: Quantitative findings showed that parents supported TTS because it was convenient (n = 83, 97%) and effective (n = 82, 95%) in keeping students learning in person (n = 82, 95%) and preventing the spread of COVID-19 (n = 80, 93%). Qualitative interviews with informants found that having a clear protocol and assigning staff to specified tasks allowed for successful TTS implementation. However, insufficient staffing and testing resources, parent mistrust of testing, and lack of communication from schools were perceived barriers. CONCLUSION: The school community strongly supported TTS despite the many implementation challenges faced. This study emphasized the importance of ensuring resources for equitable implementation of COVID-19 prevention strategies and the critical role of communication.

Design of a water curtain to reduce accumulations of float coal dust in longwall returns.

Accumulation of float coal dust (FCD) in underground mines is an explosion hazard that affects all underground coal mine workers. While this hazard is addressed by the application of rock dust, inadequate rock dusting practices can leave miners exposed to an explosion risk. Researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have focused on developing a water curtain that removes FCD from the airstream, thereby reducing the buildup of FCD in mine airways. In this study, the number and spacing of the active sprays in the water curtain were varied to determine the optimal configuration to obtain peak knockdown efficiency (KE) while minimizing water consumption.

Comparison of the CAS-POL and IOM samplers for determining the knockdown efficiencies of water sprays on float coal dust.

Float coal dust, generated by mining operations, is distributed throughout mine airways by ventilating air designed to purge gases and respirable dust. Float coal dust poses an explosion hazard in the event of a methane ignition. Current regulation requires the application of inert rock dust in areas subjected to float coal dust in order to mitigate the hazard. An alternate method using water sprays, which have been effective in controlling respirable dust hazards, has been proposed as a way to control float coal dust generated on longwall faces. However, the knockdown efficiency of the proposed water sprays on float coal dust needs to be verified. This study used gravimetric isokinetic Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM) samplers alongside a real-time aerosol monitor (Cloud Aerosol Spectrometer with polarization; CAS-POL) to study the effects of spray type, operating pressure, and spray orientation on knockdown efficiencies for seven different water sprays. Because the CAS-POL has not been used to study mining dust, the CAS-POL measurements were validated with respect to the IOM samplers. This study found that the CAS-POL was able to resolve the same trends measured by the IOM samplers, while providing additional knockdown information for specific particle size ranges and locations in the test area. In addition, the CAS-POL data was not prone to the same process errors, which may occur due to the handling of the IOM filter media, and was able to provide a faster analysis of the data after testing. This study also determined that pressure was the leading design criteria influencing spray knockdown efficiency, with spray type also having some effect and orientation having little to no effect. The results of this study will be used to design future full-scale float coal dust capture tests involving multiple sprays, which will be evaluated using the CAS-POL.