THE AIR FORCE WILL SOON DEPLOY THE NEXT GENERATION OF AIRCRAFT EMBEDDED WITH VAST QUANTITIES OF ADVANCED COMPOSITE MATERIALS. THE MAINTENANCE AND REWORK SHOPS WILL FACE A NEW CHALLENGE IN SAFELY WORKING WITH THESE NEW MATERIALS. THE DECENTRALIZED APPROACH TO MUCH OF THIS WORK WILL PREVENT INVESTMENT IN THE LATEST HANDLING AND SHAPING TECHNOLOGY USED BY AIRFRAME MANUFACTURERS FOR MINIMIZING WORKER EXPOSURE TO HAZARDOUS MATERIALS. OUR INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE AND OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE GROUPS MUST CONTINUE A PROACTIVE STANCE TO INSURE SAFE SHOP ENVIRONMENTS AND WORK PRACTICES INVOLVING COMPOSITE REPAIRS AND REWORK.
