NEWSLETTER
The Section’s 32nd
annual meeting was held January 17-19, 2007 at The Bay Club Hotel and Marina on
President Frank
Parker opened the technical meeting Thursday morning. After welcoming attendees and guests he
introduced President-Elect Hamid Arabzadeh, the Program Chair, who developed
the program. Hamid reported
changes in the program due to speakers being ill or "tending to pressing
business at home". The Conference
theme this year was “A Professional
Crisis – Is There a Need to Reinvent Industrial Hygiene?” The format was a series of presentations on
various aspects of the theme followed by an in-depth discussion with a panel
consisting of YPSW members and guests. Following a brief overview of the program,
Hamid introduced the first speaker and provided the following summary of the highlights of the meeting for this newsletter.
Ø
Fred Toca made the point that there is still a very
definite need for professionals who can anticipate, recognize, evaluate and
control hazards in the workplace. He
mentioned many occupational health (OH) issues have been resolved in the
Dr. Toca challenged the profession to penetrate the education system
and create programs for young people in high school – programs that excite
people about our profession. Author's
comment: What a great idea and
similar to one made by the author in
Ø
Professor Soule approached this subject by raising a simple
but profound question. Where have all
the mentors gone? He pointed out that
today’s IHs leave their academic programs with strong book knowledge but
without a lot of experiential knowledge. Further, he pointed out very few
graduates actually practice IH. Instead
they are more of a generalist practicing in the full arena of EHS.
Professor Soule went on to explain the advantage of this mentoring
approach included the reality of an “up close and personal” learning experience
for the person new to the profession.
The mentoring, particularly when practiced with recognized objectives
and structured outcomes for the process, is relevant and applicable to the
setting in which the mentoring takes place.
Mastery of the associated skills demonstrates when the mentoree is able
to undertake projects without the direct involvement of the mentor.
Unfortunately, with the increasing demands on the experienced
industrial hygienist and the expanding scope of coverage as IHs take on ESH
responsibilities, the practice of mentoring
new IHs is all but disappearing.
Ø
Robert Bacci was a breath of fresh air given his young age
and already broad responsibilities.
He repositioned the issue suggesting the profession may be feeling the
pressures of emerging opportunities for the IH profession. He introduced and discussed the concept of
the “IH Business Partner” as it relates to our need to respond and the needs of
businesses today. Challenges of pushing for H&S to become part the
cultural fabric of organizations, encouraging senior management to support
initiatives from the top down, and early engagement of the industrial hygienist
continue to be struggles for many practicing professionals today.
He highlighted that a challenge is effectively communicating with
executive management in business terms. While ethics remain a core tenant
of how we manage within our profession, Robert underscored the importance of
understanding not only the culture of a company, which in many cases, is
only influenced by the leaders, but the business strategy. Being
able to communicate the message of industrial hygiene in terms that are understood
by business leaders is critical for our continued integration into the
business. The value of the profession study that is being launched by the
AIHA and contracted through EG&S and ORC signals a considerable move in
this direction. The outputs of these efforts and how their implementation
is managed may be key for businesses to understand the
value that the profession brings, may invigorate practicing IHs, and open
new doors for many looking for opportunities in the sciences.
Ø
Dr. Rick Fulwiler raised two questions. First, is the identity of IH in crisis and
second, is the professional practice of IH in crisis? He suggested that the identity of the terms
“industrial hygiene and industrial hygienist” are in a crisis state since their
use is becoming less and less frequent.
This, of course, is due to the integration phenomenon where 20 years ago
the terms were broadly used, then about 10 – 15 years ago there was an
integration of IH and S so the term of the day was H&S, and in the last 10
years further integration or compression has occurred so the current term is
EHS.
Rick’s answer for his second questions – Is the professional practice
of IH in crisis? Is a “no”, but it is a qualified no. The professional practice of IH is not in
crisis IF the profession responds to the changing demographic of today and
tomorrow, e.g., less manufacturing in the US, a global economy, increased
service based industry and the rapid advances in the application of scientific
discoveries. It is also a “no” IF the IH
profession responds to today’s critical issues e.g. pandemic threats, terrorism
and emergency preparedness, wellness or presenteeism and new technologies such
as nanotechnology and bioengineering.
Ø
Conclusion: Four
points need to be made as we deal with whether or not our profession is in
crisis.
1.
We need
to attract bright, young students into our profession. The concept and principles and methods of IHs
are essential for new technologies and developing countries.
2.
We need
to revitalize the concept of mentoring so your future IHs
entering the profession
can be even more successful.
3.
Today’s
professionals need to be business partners but not forgetting that our primary
professional/ethical responsibility is the protection of people inside and
outside of the fence line. Having said
this we need to be able to express IH outputs as business outputs.
4.
There is
no question the terms industrial hygiene and industrial hygienist are losing
visibility given the transition from IH to H&S to EHS professional. Are the term industrial hygiene and the title
industrial hygienist of critical importance?
5.
What do
you think? We would like to hear from
you. Contact Rick with your ideas – his
contact information is in your current YPSW Membership Book.
CLAYTON AWARD
The recipient of the
2007 YPSW George and Florence Clayton Award, Jas Singh, was very appreciative
of the Section's acknowledgement of his many years of notable
achievements in the field of industrial
hygiene. His acceptance speech was
gracious with a great touch of humor, and was greeted with a round of
applause. Mary, Jas's wife, was present
for this special occasion.
CHANGE OF YPSW OFFICERS
Thanks to Bob Soule,
who spent one year as President-Elect, another as President and the last year
as Past-President.
Thanks to Herschel Hobson for his three-year term on the Executive
Committee as a Director.