TAMPA, Fla. - When hospital employees were found to have a greater chance of developing adult-onset asthma, it was assumed that it was being caused by allergic responses to latex from gloves. Particulate from the gloves tends to enter the airstream. This may not be the case, according to Michael Hodgson, M.D., Ph.D., with the Veteran's Administration (VA), who spoke at the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) 2004 IAQ conference. The meeting dealt with IAQ in hospitals.
Not too long ago, Hodgson "joined the world of operations, which is a very humbling thing for an academic to do," he admitted.