FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Release No. SPR-08-602-01 

Carol Tobin, AIHA Meetings and Education
(703) 846-0745; ctobin@aiha.org

Melissa Hurley, AIHA Communications
(612) 743-7948, mhurley@aiha.org 
 
Energy Is in the Air and in the Minds of Minneapolis Convention Goers

AIHce Opening Session Focuses on the Changing Workplace

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (June 2, 2008) — Charged with energy of current events, both in the world and in the industrial hygiene community, the American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition (AIHce) opening general session provided a jump start to the 2008 conference.

Renowned economic futurist Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation for Economic Trends, presented the opening session at AIHce 2008. He is a frequent guest on numerous television programs, including Face the Nation, Nightline, 20/20, Larry King Live, The Today Show, and Good Morning America.

Rifkin provided insight and analysis of factors impacting the economy, work force, and environment—namely the relationship between energy and communications and how it will change the workplace in the 21st century.

“We are on the cusp of a revolution in the way we address health and safety issues,” Rifkin said. “We (have to) rethink the workplace in the 21st century.”

Rifkin talked in length about the how the convergence of a communication change and an energy change has always equated to an industrial revolution. He said that the internet changed our communication and that distributed energy (solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric power) stored as hydrogen will be the second element leading to a third industrial revolution. “Hydrogen is to energy what digital is to media,” he said.

Rifkin’s message early on focused on the problems facing the global environment and climate change due to what he called the “oil age.” He said we are the twilight of a very dangerous energy era. Despite this, the message ended with hope that industrial hygienists have the power to help change things for the better.

“You need to rethink the workplace for us,” he said. “You need to help us open that window to a post-carbon, post-uranium future… to redesign the workplace to make it completely virtuous with the dynamics of the ecosystem.”

Another key moment of the opening session was the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists’ (ACGIH) announcement that a judge dismissed the last of four counts in a lawsuit against them. The news was met with rounds of enthusiastic applause from conference attendees. Lawrence M. Gibbs, MEd, MPH, CIH, chair of ACGIH said, “I would like to express my gratitude to AIHA… your support was critical to our success.”  

The mayor of Minneapolis, R.T. Rybak, also made a brief appearance at the conference, recognizing industrial hygienists and environmental health and safety professionals and thanking them for the job they do.

The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) and ACGIH cosponsor AIHce.

Detailed conference information and registration is available at www.aihce2008.org. For more information, contact AIHA at (703) 849-8888.

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NOTE: Qualified editorial representatives are invited to attend AIHce free of charge. Members of the media may contact Melissa Hurley at (612) 743-7948 or mhurley@aiha.org for further information.

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. For more information, go to www.aiha.org.