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American Industrial Hygiene Association - Rocky Mountain Section
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THE EXPOSURE
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President's Message

- Bradley King, PhD, MPH, CIH

Dear RMS Members,
Happy summer 2016! It’s hard to believe that we are past the Memorial Day weekend and nearing the halfway point for the year; where has the time flown?! If your schedule has been anything like mine, your year has been filled with a variety of interesting and exciting professional challenges and successes, with more certainly to come! One of those highlights was spending a week recently in Baltimore attending the 2016 American Industrial Hygiene conference and exposition (AIHce). Like many of the past years’ conferences, it was filled with a variety of great educational and networking opportunities. To start the conference off, we heard from Adam Steltzner, Team Leader and Chief Engineer for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Project, who led a team of engineers in landing the Curiosity Rover on the surface of Mars in 2012. His reflections on team leadership skills, creating an organizational culture of success and sustained performance, and managing innovation were key lessons that can be applied in our own industrial hygiene/occupational health field. Throughout the course of the conference, technical sessions were presented on topics as varied as new detection and assessment technologies, preparedness and response to the Ebola crisis, exposure assessment data analysis, welding fume hazards, indoor environmental quality issues, and development of NIOSH skin notations, amongst a host of others. These provided a great way to keep up-to-date on the latest research and developments in our field.

One of the most positive aspects of a conference like AIHce is the opportunity to visit with colleagues from around the country, reconnecting with them on both a personal and professional level. This can include randomly bumping into people in the conference center’s corridors or at many of the social events planned throughout the week. I’d like to thank the Mountain and Plains Education and Research Center (MAP ERC) for co-sponsoring a social event with the AIHA RMS on Tuesday, May 24th, at MaGerk’s Pub in the Federal Hill neighborhood near the Baltimore Convention Center. We had a number of MAP ERC alumni and AIHA RMS members join together over food and drinks to both reconnect and make new connections. Thanks to those who attended and special thanks to Amanda Van Dyke and Michelle Haan at the MAP ERC for their work on organizing the fun event!

The conference also provides a venue to recognize a number of our colleagues for outstanding accomplishments. The Mark of Excellence Breakfast was a highlight at this year’s AIHce during which leaders and award winners are recognized for their contributions to the industrial hygiene and occupational health field. I was very proud to see our section’s own Linn Havelick, CIH, be named one of this year’s AIHA Distinguished Fellows, a designation limited to no more than 5% of the AIHA membership. Congratulations, Linn!
 

The 15 2016 AIHA Fellows from the Mark of Excellence ceremony (including Linn Havelick, seventh from the right)
The RMS Board of Directors continues to work on providing exceptional local events to our members. I hope that many of you have taken advantage of the educational events so far this year, including lunch-and-learns on ‘How Prescription Drugs Affect the Safety of Your Workplace’ and ‘Overview and Impact of EU REACH Chemical Regulations’. We are planning events in the near future such as a lunch-and-learn on ‘The Hazards of Cryogenics and Safe Compressed Gas Cylinder Handling’ (June 15) and a 4-hour professional development course (PDC) entitled ‘Worst Plant Seminar’ (July 14).  Mark your calendars for what will be very informative events! Further information on these and other upcoming events can be found on the AIHA RMS calendar of events. The Fall Technical Conference (FTC) committee, co-chaired by RMS President-Elect Tim Lockhart, has been very busy in coordinating the efforts for planning our 2016 FTC coming up in September. Read the article in this newsletter for an update from the committee on the exciting program planned for the conference. Our international committee continues to work with our Romanian colleagues from the Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Romania (with whom our section is building a partnership) to allow for a representative to visit and present at the FTC, as well. Last but not least, we held our first local networking/social event on Wednesday, April 20 at Dave and Buster’s—it was a great opportunity to meet and reconnect with old and new colleagues. Be on the lookout for future social events and be sure to join us!

Our Board Leadership is committed to continuing to make the RMS one of the stand-out and leading AIHA sections across the country.  I want to personally thank all the board members for their efforts thus far! And to our section members, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions or comments throughout the year.

Wishing all of our members a safe and productive summer!
Members Corner
 
2015 NFPA 70e and Emergency Response
- Brian O'Malley
 
In updating my organization's electrical safety program, one consideration that has taken a remarkable extensive amount of time and effort has been the establishment of effective emergency response practices. The 2015 edition of the NFPA 70e Standard for Electrical Safety includes training requirements on first aid, CPR, AED, and methods for releasing a victim from contact from an energized conductor; all of which are dependent on assigned responsibilities, response procedures, and available equipment. In recognizing the potential injury severity if an arc flash or blast were to occur, and how first responders may not arrive within 3-4 minutes, focus was placed on the rapid initiation of our emergency response procedure and the roles of our employees. 

It was obvious that all electrical staff would need first aid, CPR, AED, and contact release raining. In creating an internal requirement that the buddy system will be used for energized work in which an energized work permit is required, this ensures a trained employee would be immediately present in the event of an emergency. The second person is not directly engaged in the energized work, but rather acts as the emergency response procedure initiator (attendant). Questions were raised on off-shifts when the electrical maintenance staff is off, but a single electrician is on call. It was determined that the core process supervisors with full-day coverage would also receive this training and would fulfill the role of the emergency response attendant.
All employees who may fill the role of the attendant attend the first half of the annual qualified electrical safety class to understand electrical safety practices, boundaries, PPE, and the relationship between electrical hazards and possible injury. Additionally, a flow chart that details the program requirements helps all employee groups understand the requirements for the electrical. The picture above shows a section of the chart. 

Permit-required energized electrical work does not come up often, but the effort placed on our emergency preparedness has been a catalyst in evaluating our response in other program areas.
Committee Updates
Outreach Committee
- Sarah Kaiman
On March 3rd, AIHA-RMS members Sarah Kaiman, Tim Lockhart, and Bradley King served as panel judges and presented a $100 award to the "best" industrial hygiene-focused
poster Mountain & Plains Education and Research Center (MAP ERC) 8th Annual Research Day Symposium. The MAP-ERC is a worker health and safety education and research center within the Center for Health, Work & Environment at the Colorado School of Public Health, is funded by CDC/NIOSH. The AIH-RMS award was presented to Karin Adams, a graduate student studying Industrial Hygiene at CSU, for her outstanding work on noise exposure assessment for hockey referees. Recently, a new requirement was made for referees to wear a longer face shield. Karin found increased their noise exposures when blowing whistles through her research. Her research will assist the Colorado Ice Hockey Referees Association (CIRA) to develop a plan to decrease referee noise exposures in the future. 
 
On April 7th, AIHA-RMS members Chris Brossia, MaryAnn Heaney, Sarah Kaiman, and Emily Hornung served as "Special Award" judges at the 61st annual Colorado Science and Engineering Fair (CSEF).  Because the judges thought that two projects were “outstanding” to promote the improvement of worker and/or community health and safety, they awarded two separate awards. A $150 award was presented to Valerie Keeney, a junior high student, for her project, The Relationship between Cloud Chambers, Alpha Particles, Radon-222, and Different Floors of a House (abstract available here). A $100 Award was presented to Isaac Jordan, a high school student, for his project, A New Twist on Artificial Muscle: Using Supercoiled Polymer Fibers to Power Robotics and Prosthetics (abstract available here).  A special thanks goes out to judges for volunteering to serve on the judge panel. Please visit the CSEF website for more information.
Legislative Committee
- Brian O'Malley
The next Legislative Update will come out in mid-June.
As was detailed in the last legislative update, the final rule for the updated silica becomes effective on June 23, 2016. Compliance dates are phased in over the next five years, beginning June 23, 2017, with different implementation dates for construction, general industry, and hydraulic fracturing. OSHA estimates the rule will save more than 600 lives and prevent more than 900 new cases of silicosis each year. The agency estimates about 2.3 million workers are exposed to respirable crystalline silica in their workplaces, including 2 million construction workers who drill, cut, crush, or grind silica-containing materials and 300,000 workers in general industry operations such as brick manufacturing, foundries and fracking.

Since the rule was released in March, many lawsuits from labor and business groups have emerged arguing the updated standard will be too costly and technologically impossible to implement. 

We still highly recommend looking at the preamble to the amended rule on occupational exposure to silica to get a sense of the time, effort, and detail it takes to update a standard. Another great, and shorter, summary of the work around this new standard is the report on respirable Crystalline Silica in the Workplace by the Congressional Research Service. it can be found at https://www.aiha.org/government-affairs/Documents/CRS%20Silica%20Report-04-16.pdf .
International Committee
- Bevin Luna
It’s summer break already?  That’s unbelievable!  Where does the time go?  We have a quick update for you this quarter.  Leading into the break, the international committee confirmed that two colleagues from Gheorghe Asachi Technical University (TUIASI) in Iasi, Romania will attend the AIHA-RMS Fall Technical Conference that is being held September 20th and September 21st.  In addition, we have been hard at work converting video presentations from AIHA-RMS professional development and educational events into formats that can be added to our online library of resources for International Affiliate Members.  If any of you members are interested in participating and/or contributing to our online library, please let us know.  You can email the committee director, Bevin Luna at bevin.luna@gmail.com  Have a wonderful summer! 
Education Committee
- Holli Merchant
The Education Committee is hosting The Worst Plant, which is an interactive virtual audit through the worst possible facility. The idea is to see violations in the class so you can recognize them on your own sites. This is a very popular presentation at AIHce and we are super lucky to have it here for the Rocky Mountain Section. It will be held on July 14th from 8-12 at the University of Colorado.

We are also working on a silica presentation and confined space in construction. Stay posted for lots of great learning opportunity's coming up! 
Mark Your Calendars…the 2016 Fall Technical Conference is Quickly Approaching!
 
The planning committee for the 2016 Fall Technical Conference is very excited about the plans being developed for the upcoming conference scheduled just a few short months away on September 20-21, 2016. Because the call for abstracts is currently open, the final agenda is still being formulated and will be released as the conference nears. Abstract submissions are due by July 1, 2016, so there is still time and abstracts can be submitted on our conference webpage. The committee is particularly interested in advanced, technically oriented and practical presentations, or workshops that apply to industrial hygiene, occupational safety, and environmental health issues. We welcome your submissions on technical topics and would be very pleased to see your participation in this conference as a presenter! If you have interest in supporting the conference as an exhibitor or sponsor, please review the pertinent information and forms on our website. As always, we are grateful to past and future sponsors for helping to make the conference the success that it is!
 
Following in the tradition of past conferences, we do know that we will have two full days of engaging speakers on a variety of industrial hygiene and safety-related topics. During the two conference days, many opportunities for networking will be scheduled so that attendees can interact and mingle with colleagues from across the region, including a happy hour/social event that closes the first day of the conference at the conclusion of the scientific sessions. In addition to the technical sessions, the conference will host a number of vendors and exhibitors with whom the attendees can interact and learn about new products and services. A number of door prizes will also be given out during various points of the conference. We anticipate hosting a great event and look forward to seeing our AIHA RMS members there!
 
DETAILS:
What: 2016 Fall Technical Conference
Who: American Industrial Hygiene Association Rocky Mountain Section (AIHA RMS) and American Society of Safety Engineers Colorado Chapter (ASSE CO)
Where: Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., Arvada, CO
When: September 20-21, 2016 (8 AM to 5 PM, both days)
Keynote Speaker highlights (as of June 1) include:
  • Aaron Tripler, director of AIHA Government Affairs, speaking on current and upcoming federal legislation and regulations and public policy issues of AIHA
  • Joanna Watson, manager of the NIOSH Climate Change Initiative, speaking on how climate change can be expected to impact occupational health and safety now and in the future
For more information: contact AIHA-RMS co-chair Tim Lockhart (Timothy.Lockhart@colorado.edu) or ASSE-CO co-chair Allison Fultineer (Allison.Fultineer@lockton.com).
I Am Environmental Health
- Linda Hendrix
If there is one time per year that AIHA members can volunteer to give back to the future of our profession, this is it! I have represented the AIHA at four of the last six annual events at Colorado State University (CSU) and I come home re-energized each time. Each March, the CSU I AM ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH networking event is designed to allow Junior and Seniors in the Environmental Health Program to interface with professionals across all the different facets of environmental health in one session.

Many students have only a general idea of what they want to pursue after graduation, such as: food safety, toxicology, epidemiology, water quality, industrial hygiene, public health, or continuing on to an advanced degree, just to name a few. This is your chance to influence them to pursue Industrial Hygiene! In small groups of four students and four professionals, this event gives them the opportunity to delve deeper into "a day in the life of" each professional. How we got into the field, what our average day entails, what we love the most about our careers, resume advice, etc. The small group discussion continues for about 20 minutes, and then just like speed dating, the four students move on to the next circle and we inherit a new crop of inquisitive minds. 

in addition to providing general information on what they should expect in their careers, and to learn firsthand if jobs in their chosen field are anything close to what they envision, this event is also used to promote upcoming summer internship positions and to encourage mentoring relationships. 

Please contact me for more information of if you would like to volunteer to encourage the next generation of Environmental Health students to pursue Industrial Hygiene as a career! And if that alone is not a big enough reward, you might just find a wonderful intern for your company. You will also meet other professionals in our robust Colorado EH community, perhaps reconnecting with prior co-workers or friends from college!
Copyright © 2016 AIHA - Rocky Mountain Section, All rights reserved.


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