Su and MALDA travel oversees to present novel findings

Published: January 23, 2024

Wei-Chung Su, PhD, CIH, the interim program director of industrial hygiene for the Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (SWCOEH) at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, traveled oversees to present novel findings from Mobile Aerosol Lung Deposition Apparatus (MALDA), a fully replicated human airway system.  

Last fall in Taiwan, Su presented at the 35th International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE 2023) and Kaohsiung Medical University to share findings on the respiratory data collected from MALDA.

Su made three oral presentations at ISEE 2023, focusing on the efficient and systematic study of aerosol respiratory deposition.

MALDA contains two systems: a human airway system (including a set of 3D-printed realistic human airway replicas) and an aerosol measurement system (with two units of aerosol particle sizer). By installing the two systems on a lab trolley with a vacuum pump, MALDA becomes mobile and can conduct aerosol respiratory deposition experiments in real-life settings outside the laboratory. MALDA is used to study occupational and environmental health exposures, including welding fumes, 3D printing emissions, and e-cigarette aerosols.

Data collected by Su from MALDA, , was presented on the tool’s implementation in three different settings:

1. Urban ultrafine particle exposure in the Greater Houston Area
2. Secondhand e-cigarette aerosol exposure
3. Dental cleaning-related aerosol exposure

At Kaohsiung Medical University, Su discussed how the findings from the tested environments affect human airways with internal medicine and pulmonary doctors. This research can potentially lead to interventions in health-related aerosol respiratory deposition and tailor the development of MALDA to target the harmful factors in aerosol exposure. 

The SWCOEH provides graduate-level training opportunities for occupational and environmental health professionals through our industrial hygiene, occupational and environmental medicine, occupational epidemiology, and Total Worker Health^® programs.