Free Webinar: AR-15 Noise Suppressors & Lead Exposure - Police Firing Range

Class description

Learn about the current occupational safety and health research featuring doctorate and master’s program research across Industrial Hygiene. The Northwest Center for Occupational Safety and Health Continuing Education program presents a dynamic webinar series highlighting research discoveries of current Education and Research Center graduate students. 

Each 50-minute live webinar will feature doctorate and master's candidate research Occupational Health Services, Occupational Medicine, and Occupational Health Nursing disciplines. This is an opportunity to hear directly from researchers on relevant, current topics facing workers today. 

*FREE LIVE WEBINAR *

May 1, 2026, 12pm-1:00pm Pacific Time

Impact of AR-15 Noise Suppressors on Lead Exposure in Indoor Police Firing Ranges 

Mohammad Fidahusain, MD, MPH, Occupational and Environmental Medicine Resident Physician and PhD Candidate, Dept of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington

Police work can have many occupational risks, including exposures during weapons training. Firearm suppressors are increasingly adopted by law enforcement for hearing protection, yet their impact on breathing-zone lead exposure during indoor range training is not well characterized. Dr. Mohammad Fidahusain's work on a pilot field study evaluated breathing-zone airborne lead and noise exposures among four law enforcement officers firing AR-15 rifles with standard suppressors, flow-through suppressors, and unsuppressed firearms in an indoor range. 

Dr. Mohammad Fidahusain will present data on firearm suppressors usage increasing breathing-zone airborne lead concentrations by 13–21-fold per 100 rounds compared to unsuppressed firing. Dr Fidahusain will discuss findings of occupational exposures where 100% of suppressor sessions were found to exceed OSHA's Action Level and 50% of sessions exceeded the Permissible Exposure Limit, indicating important implications for occupational health policy and police training. Time will be allotted for questions.

Presenter:

Mohammad Fidahusain, MD, MPH

Learning objectives:

1. Identify research-to-practice findings, methodologies, and opportunities for our occupational safety and health practitioner community professional development.
2. Describe how graduate research aims to address research gaps in occupational safety and health (OSH).
3. Discuss current discovery, collaboration, and innovation within DEOHS/ERC graduate research.

Audience: Industrial hygiene, safety, occupational health nurses, and health and safety professionals