FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Release No. SPR-08-1106-01

Kim Bacon, AIHA Academy Relations
(703) 846-0780; kbacon@aiha.org

Melissa Hurley Alves, AIHA Communications
(703) 846-0740; mhurley@aiha.org

AIHA Presents 27th Annual Smyth Award to Outstanding Association Member

Katharine Hammond receives recognition for her exceptional contributions to the industrial hygiene profession

FAIRFAX, VA, (November 6, 2008) — The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) has announced the 2008 recipient of the Henry F. Smyth Jr. Award. Katharine Hammond, PhD, CIH, will be recognized at the 2008 Professional Conference on Industrial Hygiene (PCIH) being held November 8–11 in Tampa, Florida. AIHA’s Academy of Industrial Hygiene hosts PCIH.

“It is a great honor to present this award to Dr. Hammond on behalf of the Academy,” said Brad T. Garber, PhD, CIH, DABT, CSP, Academy president. “Her dedication to promoting the industrial hygiene profession through her research and many achievements has earned great respect from her peers.”

Hammond, professor and chair of the Environmental Health Sciences Division at the University of California, Berkeley, has been from the start of her career actively involved in industrial hygiene. She received her doctorate in chemistry from Brandeis University, and earlier, a master’s degree from the Harvard School of Public Health in environmental health sciences, where she later conducted research and taught as a visiting lecturer. After positions at Harvard and the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, she joined the faculty at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, where she headed the industrial hygiene program for several years. 

“Industrial hygiene is as relevant as ever in the 21st century. New products and processes such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and alternative fuels require the basic industrial hygiene skills of recognition, evaluation, and control be adapted with the concomitant development of new techniques,” said Hammond. “As we strive to address these emerging needs, we must never forget that those workers who maintain our bridges, repair our cars, and clean our homes need our protection; our challenge here is meeting the needs of independent workers and small employers.”

Hammond’s early work centered on the pulmonary effects of exposures to silicon carbide in manufacturing, the carcinogenic potential of diesel exhaust exposures in railroad workers, the effects of exposure to solvents among boat builders, and the effects of exposure to machining fluids in the automobile industry. Her research has focused on developing methods to assess exposure for epidemiologic studies; she headed the exposure assessment component of the studies of spontaneous abortion and other reproductive outcomes among women who work in the semiconductor industry.

Hammond served as a consultant to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Scientific Advisory Board in its review of the environmental tobacco smoke documents that culminated in the publication of Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking: Lung Cancer and Other Disorders. Her current research includes work on causal and nonlinear models of cancer risk among autoworkers, and neurologic and reproductive effects of hexane on workers. Throughout her career, she has used her expertise in industrial hygiene to inform exposure assessment and epidemiologic studies. 

Hammond served as chair of the AIHA Occupational Epidemiology Committee, the ACGIH® Chemical Substances Threshold Limit Value Committee, the International Society of Exposure Analysis, and the Scientific Advisory Committee on Tobacco Product Regulation for World Health Organization (WHO). She currently serves as an International Advisory Board member for the Annals of Occupational Hygiene and serves on the Benzene and Cancer Study Scientific Advisory Panel for the National Cancer Institute, the Scientific Review Panel on Toxic Air Contaminants for the California EPA, the WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation, and the Committee on Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Acute Coronary Events with the Institute of Medicine.

Hammond is an AIHA Fellow, and her honors and awards include the Alice Hamilton Award for Excellence in Occupational Safety and Health from the National Institute for Occupational Science and Health, the AIHA Rachel Carson Award, and the Alfred W. Childs Distinguished Service Award from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health. In 2008, she received the Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor Award from Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute.

The Academy established the Henry F. Smyth Jr. Award in 1981 and presents it to an individual who has recognized the needs of the industrial hygiene profession and made major contributions, thereby contributing to the improvement of the public’s welfare. Henry F. Smyth Jr. was a dedicated teacher and productive researcher whose projects enhanced the profession. 

For more information regarding the Henry F. Smyth Jr. Award, please contact Kim Bacon at (703) 846-0780 or kbacon@aiha.org. For more information about PCIH, please visit www.pcih2008.org. 

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Founded in 1939, the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) is the premier association of occupational and environmental health and safety professionals.  AIHA’s 10,600 members play a crucial role on the front line of worker health and safety every day. Members represent a cross-section of industry, private business, labor, government and academia.