I often return from my profession’s annual conference reinvigorated and tired all at once. Meeting up with old friends and making new ones is something I don’t routinely do. This year's conference left a lasting impression, as I had the opportunity to connect with a variety of fresh faces, including students and budding professionals. Also, I was inducted as a Fellow by the board of American Industrial Hygiene, which made this occasion even more unforgettable. I recently had both early and late-career conversations over several days that led to an interesting session. I was asked to give my thoughts on "Lessons in Leadership," specifically geared towards young and early-career professionals.
As I tried to sum up my 30 years in a 15-minute story, I realized how crucial industrial hygiene is in my career. The realization of the true value and significance of my work has given me a renewed appreciation for my profession. It has led me to ponder the question, "What exactly do industrial hygienists do?"
Industrial Hygienist - Solving Problems that Save Lives
Industrial hygiene is a crucial practice that is often misunderstood and described in complicated terms. While its definition and purpose can be found in various publications and educational programs, its value is often lost in jargon and mission statements.
Working as an Industrial Hygienist across many sectors, I believe that the most valuable work we can do is solving problems. This includes areas such as public health, toxicology, heavy industry, healthcare, education, academia, commercial retail, and manufacturing. In short;
solving problems and saving lives is what we do.
Industrial Hygienists are experts at identifying and solving problems that could cause sickness or harm to workers and the public. They play a critical role in promoting physical and mental health. Our skills make it possible to solve issues that other professions cannot address. These environmental and workplace exposures may be short-lived or chronic, but ultimately result in the loss of life or diminish it significantly.
The days that stand out in my memory are a handful of times when I could spot a life-threatening condition and intervene. In these types of situations, there is often a risk of exposure to chemical and biological agents that cannot be seen by the naked eye. These situations are often characterized by confined spaces, the possibility of explosions and fires, and the presence of infectious agents such as Legionella. Spotting a life-threatening situation can be difficult, but Industrial Hygienists are uniquely capable of spotting them.
Life Threatening Pathogen
A life-threatening pathogen raising its head in workplaces and communities across the US is Legionella pneumophila. This waterborne pathogen can contaminate any building water system and is undetectable until people become ill, an outbreak occurs, or specific sampling programs are used. Although prevention programs are more common these days, employees often only learn about hazards after multiple people have gotten sick or died. With a mortality rate of 10% it’s not surprising that ligitation often results from cases when a person is made ill from Legionella pneumonia. Preventing and controlling Legionella and other waterborne pathogens is quickly becoming a routine task for Industrial Hygienists. Industrial Hygienists can help in legal cases by providing their expertise on the risk that Legionella, among other hazards, poses. Their experience is valuable in such situations.
Fortunately, spotting conditions that pose an imminent threat to life has been rare. However, I credit my effectiveness as an Industrial Hygienist to my education, training, and experience. It has trained me to identify hazards, recognize the urgency of a situation, and convince stakeholders to take corrective actions. Without these key skills, I would have been unable to identify potential risks, advocate with conviction, and articulate the gravity of the matter.
Solving The Problem
More commonly there have been situations where someone passed or experienced serious injury, and it wasn’t obvious why. To effectively solve a problem caused by an injury, it is crucial to first assess the situation and identify the root causes. Only by doing so can you come up with a comprehensive solution to mitigate the hazard and remedy the risks involved.
Moving People To Action
Being able to “solve the problem” before someone else is killed or injured is difficult and even more challenging is moving people to action.
At our best, what we do is solve problems that save lives. Most of the time, the crucial work is the everyday monitoring, prevention, and compliance to ensure the safety of workers and the community. Where we live, study, and play are not usually the focus of Industrial Hygiene, but are often served by members of the profession. These “non-industrial” places are workplaces for someone and essential parts of our everyday life. With diminished budgets and loss of confidence in public health agencies, recognizing health hazards impacting non-industrial working populations is often left to Industrial Hygienists. As a profession, we should not shrink from this challenge. If we do, who will fill the void?
Industrial Hygienists are important for solving both current and future problems, thanks to their education and technical training in recognizing and assessing hazards. Rapid advances in technology, medicine, and energy production are creating emerging problems that threaten the lives and well-being of workers and their communities alike. Just because there are no standards or established exposure limits does not mean there is no health risk or that we cannot set safeguards.
Mundane Tasks vs. Heroic Efforts
Compliance monitoring and record keeping for mandatory safety programs comprises most of the time for many Industrial Hygienists, along with training and justifying budget requests. These mundane, everyday tasks rarely light fires of ingenuity or satisfy the passion to make a difference. However, they form the foundation of our profession and, when accomplished effectively, probably save more lives than we often give them credit for. It truly is the daily “healthy diet and exercise” advice equivalent to managing workplace risks. Prevention is fundamental to health and safety, but success breeds complacency. The only observable reward for successfully preventing injury, illness and death is that “nothing happened”. Successful prevention programs lose recognition and funding until they become “unsuccessful” or “ineffective” and an adverse event occurs when someone is injured or worse. I usually attribute this cycle to human nature, but it is one that most Industrial Hygienists have seen.
Recognize Our Worth As Industrial Hygienists With Important Responsibilities
Industrial Hygienists and other Occupational Health Professionals earn their pay when an unexpected or rare event or disaster occurs. Industrial Hygienists can be vital in situations where uncontrolled hazards arise, and employees become ill or injured, or the community is impacted. They can lead and take charge of situations that other professionals cannot, especially in cases of litigation. It is in our “Professional DNA” to recognize, evaluate, and control hazards to health. Industrial Hygiene professionals can help organizations react quickly to new hazards and protect their employees, students, patients, customers, and communities. Organizations that value their advice make better decisions. Industrial Hygienists are trained to recognize hazardous conditions for what they are. Moreover, their own management team cannot believe it is a freight train bearing down on them until it is too late. Every workplace management team should recognize that Industrial Hygienists, especially Certified Industrial Hygienists (CIHs), hold a wealth of knowledge, skills, and abilities that enable them to not only prevent illness and injuries every day, but can solve problems that save lives when called upon.
The Value of a Trusted Industrial Hygienist
Emerging hazards and environmental issues act like hidden reefs and rocks to a ship. They can be just below the surface, and you might have missed them by inches before when the tide was high, but they are there just waiting to put a hole in the hull. Ignoring them when negative consequences don’t occur is just another term for blind luck. Sometimes these hidden or unseen hazards are moving like an iceberg and cause their damage when you think you have avoided them. An Industrial Hygienist can identify workplace hazards and evaluate their impact on employees and the organization they work for. Scientists usually communicate with language that recognizes the possibility of errors and uncertainty due to statistical principles. Unfortunately, this way of communicating can be interpreted by the public, laypersons, and company managers as raising alarms over things the “might or may happen”. We don't know how to communicate the importance of preventing harm without creating panic or sounding like we're overreacting until harm actually occurs. We should increase research and education to teach health and safety professionals and managers how to reduce risk and avoid illnesses and injuries caused by new technologies and emerging hazards.
What’s Next?
There are new risks, such as PFAS, waterborne pathogens, working from home, and heat stress that could be dangerous for workers. However, regulations have not done enough to keep up with health and safety concerns in the workplace over the past 20–30 years. Federal OSHA and State OSHA programs have become hobbled, defunded or done away with altogether in some states (i.e. Florida). In the last three to five decades, heavy industry and manufacturing have been relocated overseas. However, some industries like rare earth minerals mining and computer chip manufacturing may be making a comeback in the US. Managing the risks and ensuring employee safety during the production, storage, transportation, recycling, recovery, and disposal of hazardous materials and substances is essential. These operations come with hazards, which must be taken into account to prevent accidents and injuries. Challenges posed by alternative energy production and climate change alone should prompt the integration of Industrial Hygienists and other Occupational Health Professionals to planning and preparation efforts now. Preventing a problem before it becomes a crisis will always be less costly in dollars and lives. New industries and new technologies require competent professionals to assess and mitigate the inevitable hazards they introduce to the workplace. The Industrial Hygiene profession needs to rapidly recruit, train, and integrate young professionals across the field with great urgency. Unfortunately, we are anticipating reduced funding for graduate programs that educate and produce qualified Industrial Hygienists. Those entering the profession will witness increasing demands, new and emerging workplace and environmental hazards, and a job where few days will be repeated. Good or bad, Industrial Hygienists who enjoy solving important and life-threatening problems will be asked to do this more often. Managing emergency issues and catastrophes associated with unanticipated accidents and weather-related events will become more common than it is now. Preparing Industrial Hygiene professionals and the organizations they serve to handle more unexpected disasters and emerging issues should be on the agenda for everyone.
AIHA Connect Conference
AIHA CONNECT, formerly known as AIHce EXP, is the most respected conference of its kind in North America and the “must-attend” event for occupational and environmental health and safety professionals at all levels of their careers. AIHA CONNECT provides attendees with opportunities to gain knowledge and expertise through a variety of quality, peer-reviewed educational opportunities presented by global thought leaders. The conference focuses on applied science strategies, research, tools, and techniques to protect and improve worker health worldwide.