It’s hard to believe 2023 is nearly over. This year has flown by and it was a privilege to serve as the AIHA RMS president. We had an excellent year! Some of the highlights for our local section include:
Several lunch and learn sessions, including a presentation on Lab Risk Assessments and SMART Labs design.
Two PDCs with the Contemporary Topics in IH Practice PDC drawing 30 attendees.
Another successful FTC with over 100 attendees and excellent technical sessions.
Our local section continues to stay at the forefront of IH education with relevant, contemporary topics – in fact, the most recent AIHA Synergist highlighted a recent HHE by NIOSH looking at exposures to railway inspectors which was one of our featured topics at the FTC, along with an article on the lead standard by one of our conference presenters Eva Glosson, and an essay on clarity in communication by FTC presenter and recent, new RMS member, Renee Hartsook.
We have already started planning for the 2024 FTC and can’t wait to see you there. As always, presentation topics and volunteers are always welcome, so reach out to us if you’d like to get more involved!
If you have missed out on some of our education and outreach opportunities, don’t miss out on some free continuing education points via our eLearning subscription. All members have access online to the online classroom; once you log in click on the “Online Classroom” button, and then select the “2023 Rocky Mountain eLearning LITE Subscription” tab. Our access to these courses will expire on December 31.
Finally, please join us to celebrate our 2023 at the RMS holiday party on January 18 from 6-8:30pm, at the Schoolhouse in oldtown Arvada (5660 Olde Wadsworth Blvd, Arvada, CO 80002). We will have drink tickets, heavy appetizers, networking and we’ll announce the 2023 RMS IH of The Year. Members may bring one guest to accompany them - you can find the registration link here. On a related note, we are trying to compile a list of previous IH of the year winners. If you were a prior winner, or recall prior winners, please send us that information: webmaster@aiha-rms.org
Cheers and Happy Holidays!
Alison McGrath
AIHA RMS President
Member's Corner
RMS Member Interview- Bill Mele
This issue we are profiling member, Bill Mele. Mr. Mele is a Council-Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant (CIEC) a registered certification professional for fume hoods (RCP-FH), and a former registered cleanroom certification professional for sterile compounding facilities (RCCP-SCF). He has been involved in the HVAC industry in Colorado for over 50 years. He is a long time member of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), the past Director of the Denver Chapter of the Indoor Air Quality Association, (IAQA), a member of the Life-Members Club of ASHRAE (formerly the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning Engineers), and is a former adjunct instructor at Red Rocks Community College where for seven years, he taught classes in building mechanical and electrical systems, indoor air quality, and ventilation.
How were you introduced to the field of Industrial Hygiene?
Back in the 1980s, after spending almost 15 years in the HVAC industry, I became involved in the commercial and industrial air filtration industry. Our company furnished filters for commercial buildings and industrial facilities. It became obvious that filtration products needed to be applied to satisfy specific owner and occupant needs and not simply to fill a hole in a filter bank. This revelation led me to look more closely at the specific contaminant of concern, in most cases, the particle and size of concern, but also specific gas and vapor phase contaminants. Often times, these contaminants presented occupant health considerations and not simply HVAC equipment hygiene concerns.
I started purchasing equipment such as a particle counter, and a few microscopes to assess airborne particle sizes and concentrations, along with some basic gas phase, real-time monitoring equipment including CO and CO2 measurement devices. After all, you can’t really specifiy air filtration without knowing what you are filtering. As I delved deeper into the indoor environment, I decided to obtain some formal instruction in these measures and so I enrolled in graduate classes at Colorado State University in their Environmental Health and Industrial Hygiene curriculum. I took most of the classes in their IH program while continuing to work in the field practicing the methods of IH assessment and evaluation. It became an obsession and led me to approach my profession with an eye on the science of contaminant control.
What are your main areas of expertise and what do you spend most of your time doing?
IH has been classically defined as “that science and art devoted to the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of those environmental factors or stressors arising in or from the workplace, which may cause sickness, impaired health and well-being…” Many IH consulting firms are specialists in anticipation, recognition, and evaluation but come up a bit short in the control aspects of the industry. This is because recognition and evaluation of mechanical system design is an engineering discipline all to itself and can take years of experience in design, specification, and installation, of these systems outside of the classroom, to gain a complete working understanding of them to provide the “control” aspect of industrial hygiene. This has become my primary role in the industry.
Tell us about a time you made a significant impact to improve workplace health and safety conditions? What was the most gratifying moment/ time in your career so far?
I recall a project that I was involved with that demonstrated the benefits of taking a fresh look at a problem instead of jumping to the first proposed solution. In many cases of airborne contamination control, the first reaction is to throw more horsepower at the problem, i.e. increase the airflow.
I was called in on a project at mine site where gold and silver ore was being refined though an electrowinning, melting, and pouring process. Employees were exposed above the permissible exposure limit (PEL) to silver dust and fume. The refinery building had an exhaust and make-up air system that was intended to reduce airborne concentrations of silver by diluting and exhausting contaminated air in a turbulent, general dilution mixing process by delivering outside air to the space high along the west wall of the refinery room and exhausting it high along the east wall of the room. The operator was interested in determining how much they needed to increase the total volume of make-up and exhaust air to decrease the airborne concentration adequately to eliminate the need for personal protective equipment, in this case respirators.
I instead approached the problem from a new direction. Rather than increasing the exhaust and make-up air to the space, with its much higher equipment replacement and energy costs, a displacement ventilation protocol was proposed that would deliver the same volume of air to the space. Air from the existing make-up air unit was ducted to the floor of the building and discharged at a very low velocity, and taking advantage of the elevated temperatures of the refining process to allow the fresh outside air to follow the thermal plumes of the contaminated air following it up to the ceiling where it was exhausted through power roof ventilators. Contaminated air was replaced with clean air in a gentle up-flow pattern through the workers breathing zones providing reductions in airborne silver concentrations of 75%, 85%, and 90% at the three most critical spaces eliminating the need for respiratory protection without having to add any more exhaust or energy dependent make-up air to the space.
What is one piece of advice you would give to young/ fresh IH professionals?
Many airborne contaminants require some aspect of air movement to contain, capture, and remove from the worker’s vicinity. I would advise novice IH professionals to look beyond the immediate IH training opportunities and seek exposure to other professionals and organizations. Get involved with ASHRAE and take advantage of the almost unlimited training seminars, workshops, standards, and guidelines that significantly overlap the IH industry. Look into the disciplines that make up the test and balance industry, that establishes the proper commissioning and operation of HVAC equipment through the Air Movement and Control Association (AMCA). And don’t pass up the opportunities to attend the many excellent conferences, seminars, and workshops, provided by the AIHA and our own Rocky Mountain section. The more exposure to engineering controls and air movement systems the IH can experience, the more alternative, innovative, or out of the box solutions may be realized.
Thanks Bill!
Welcome New Members
Matthew Roberts
Other New Members (Not Pictured):
Clayton DesJardin
Christopher Foeller
Alex Johnsen
Steven Merritt
Caoimhin Connell