Industrial Hygiene

03/11/2025: Museum Health & Safety: A Focus on Pesticides and Silica Dust

About the webinar:

Museum staff and management must protect the health of employees, volunteers, and the public. This talk will focus on health risks arising from exposures to older pesticides and from silica dust. When museums return tribal cultural artifacts to native communities, they must consider what preservatives were used, including copper sulfate, DDT, creosote, and arsenic.

In addition, we will focus on museum staff risk related to silica dust exposures, including brick surfaces, marble dust residues, tombstone cleaning, paleontology dusts, and laboratory countertop repair...

02/11/2025: Climate Change and Incarcerated Populations: Carceral Settings and Occupational/Environmental Hazards

About the webinar:

Carceral settings provide different challenges for climate-related hazards and require different solutions. Learners will explore some of the occupational and environmental hazards people who live and work in carceral settings contend with, identify potential mitigation strategies, and outline gaps and limitations of proposed solutions.

Become an Industrial Hygienist with Richard Hirsh

Richard Hirsh, MPH, CIH, FAIHA, is certified in the comprehensive practice of IH and currently works as Sr. Director, EH&S for Nektar Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical firm with operations in the U.S. and India. Before that, Richard served as Global Safety and IH Manager for Stiefel Laboratories and previously worked for Rohm and Haas Company in the Global EHS department for 20 years.

12/10/2024: General Population Performance in Passing a Fit Test for N95 Respirators

About the webinar:

This presentation will share findings from our research on the performance of the general population in the N95 respirator fit test conducted at the Minnesota State Fair in 2021 and 2022. I will also discuss how demographic factors such as gender, age, and race influence the likelihood of passing the fit test.

11/12/2024: Optimizing Calibration Methods for Low-Cost PM2.5 Sensors in High-Concentration Occupational Environments

About the webinar:

Fine particulate matter, also known as PM2.5, poses significant health risks to humans, such as heart disease, lung-disease, and cancer. Occupational environments are especially prone to high concentrations of PM2.5, which makes monitoring air quality essential to the health and safety of workers. This webinar will present the results of a study assessing the calibration precision of low-cost PM2.5 sensors, using Linear Regression (LR), Random Forest (RF), and Polynomial Regression (PR) models across various concentration ranges of fine particulate matter.

06/20/2024: Advancing Lead Safety: Key Regulatory Updates in California

About this event

Join the AIHA Northern California Section and COEH for a deep dive into lead safety. Discuss upcoming revisions to the lead-related construction standards under Title 17, the requirements of Senate Bill 1076, and opportunities for public comment on proposed changes. Explore the role of California’s Occupational Blood Lead Registry in tracking and managing work-related lead exposure, how the data collected helps prevent lead poisoning, and how data can inform safe work practices. Finally, summarize revisions to Cal/OSHA’s lead standards and the goals of...

10/08/2024: Re-establishing Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) to Reflect Cancer Risk

About the webinar:

This presentation addresses the critical issue of occupational exposure to carcinogens, which significantly contributes to global cancer mortality. Existing Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs), particularly those set by OSHA, often fall short of providing adequate protection for workers. The research presented proposes a recalibration of Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) based on a cancer risk threshold of 1 in 1,000, using recalculated limits for 116 carcinogens. By comparing these values with international standards from Germany, the Netherlands, and France, the study...

09/10/2024: Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Occupational Exposure Assessment and Control

About the webinar:

This presentation explores the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in augmenting human expertise in occupational exposure assessment and control. As new hazards emerge, the demand for accurate, efficient, cost-effective, and scalable methods to assess and mitigate workplace risks becomes increasingly critical in solving occupational exposure issues. We will provide an overview of how AI can streamline exposure data processing, enhance analytical precision, and support more informed decision-making in occupational health and safety. Additionally, this presentation...

08/13/2024: Work to Zero: Leveraging Safety Technology to Eliminate Serious Workplace Injuries and Fatalities

About the webinar:

Safety technology can be used in occupational settings to mitigate or even eliminate hazards. However, its implementation in workplaces has not been widely adopted. To understand the state of safety innovation in the workplace, the National Safety Council (NSC) launched its Work to Zero initiative in 2019, supported by a grant from the McElhattan Foundation. The goal of the Work to Zero initiative is to eliminate workplace fatality risk through technology implementation. To do this, Work to Zero research focuses on technology solutions and ways to integrate them into the...

Hot, Dusty, and Smoky: Navigating Extremes, Climate Change Impacts on OEH

Conference Sessions are Now Available Online, On-Demand

Climate change is pressing public health crisis that is already impacting the world of work. Join the Northern California Centers for Occupational and Environmental Health for a deep dive into the chemical, biological, and physical hazards of navigating climate extremes. Learn about the rising prevalence of Valley Fever, a fungal infection caused by inhaling dust or soil particles, particularly in drought-affected regions. Discuss the impacts of rising temperatures on worker safety, heat-related illness, and...