2007 Past NEAIHA Meetings

First Annual Joint industrial Hygiene Conference
 

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

The New England section’s first annual joint IH conference with the Connecticut River Valley (CRV) and Western Massachusetts sections was held at the Sturbridge Host Hotel and Conference Center on November 7, 2007. Six prominent speakers presented in front of 140 conference participants along with 60 vendor representatives, covering important topical issues in industrial hygiene. The conference and exhibition was considered a major success with attendees giving the speakers consistently high marks both for technical content and relevance. Copies of the presentations are available on the presentation tab of the NEAIHA website. The conference also included 36 vendor booths in a separate exposition area.

The Honorable William B. Wark of the Chemical Safety Board provided attendees with insights into the methods and approach of the Board in its investigation of accidents in the chemical industry. Mr. Wark is shown below receiving a speaker appreciation gift from Patty Heyl, CIH, CSP (CRV President).


John Henshaw CIH, former OSHA administrator, spoke about organizational leadership in industrial hygiene and safety and the realities of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Mr. Henshaw is pictured on the left below with Howard Cohen PhD CIH (CRV President-Elect).


Sal DiNardi. PhD, CIH shown below with Patty Heyl, provided his insights into developing a well- designed air sampling strategy and the importance of the IH laboratory chemist in that strategy


Christopher Rennix, ScD, CIH is shown below on the left with Don Delikat CIH (NEAIHA Past-president). Dr. Rennix spoke about the institutional and technological processes involved in implementing a new safety culture in the Navy.


Don Hart PhD CIH, President of AIHA, pictured here on the right with Corey Brigg CIH CET (NEAIHA President), spoke about the organization, trends, and vision of our parent organization.




Howard Cohen PhD, CIH with Denese Deeds CIH (CRV Treasurer). Dr. Cohen provided his insights into PPE use during influenza pandemic while taking into account transmission characteristics, logistics and functionality.

 

First Annual Industrial Hygiene Conference attendees in the exposition hall viewing vendor booths between presentation sessions.


Conference speakers and local section presidents Pictured left to right are John Henshaw CIH, Chitospher Rennix ScD CIH, Sal DiNardi PhD CIH, Patty Heyl CIH CSP (CRV President), Howard Cohen PhD CIH, Corey Briggs CIH, CET (NEAIHA President), Donald Hart PhD CIH and the Honorable William B. Wark.
 

AIHA New England Section September Evening Meeting

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The New England Section's September technical meeting was held at the Holiday Inn Select in Woburn, Massachusetts with the New England College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (NECOEM) co-hosting.  The topic was “Indoor Mold: Guidance on Recognizing and Managing Health Effects and a Regulatory Update on Best Practices for Preventing and Reducing Exposure.”

Prior to the presentations, a formal business meeting was held with NEAIHA members unanimously voting to approve revisions to the by-laws that hade been drafted by the executive board. President Corey Briggs then provided an update on upcoming events for the year including the all-day conference in Sturbridge on November 7, 2007 and the joint meeting with ASSE in January, 2008. Treasurer Dick Aichelmann then summarized NEAIHA finances for the membership and President-Elect Andrew Kalil reviewed Memberclicks, a web based service that is expected to ease the transition to electronic communication.

Tom Gassert MD, President of NECOEM helped open the technical portion of the meeting with remarks on the importance of the relationship between industrial hygiene and occupational medicine. The meeting's first presenter, Dr. MaryBeth Smuts, Ph.D., provided the latest information on EPA’s guidelines for prevention of moisture and dampness and remediation. Dr Smuts was followed by Dr. Eileen Storey from the University of Connecticut, one of the authors of the “Guidance for Clinicians”.  Dr Storey provided a clinical perspective on the relationship between mold exposure and illness. The final speaker, Fred Malaby CIH, provided OSHA’s perspective on mold in the workplace along with an overview of the resources present on the OSHA website.  Copies of the presentations are available on the Meeting Presentations section of the NEAIHA website.

Lastly, the meeting was graciously sponsored by Air Duct Services (Braintree, Massachusetts), a multi-service air duct cleaning, HVAC, flood, and microbial remediation company. We want to express our thanks for their ongoing support of and participation in the NEAIHA local section.

Pictured are Andy Kalil, CIH (NEAIHA President-Elect), Don Delikat, CIH
(NEAIHA Past President), Dianne Plantamura (NECOEM Executive Director),
John Burress, MD, MPH, Medical Director, OEM Dept, Boston University
Medical Center, Dr. Eileen Storey (UCONN); Corey Briggs CIH, CET (NEAIHA
President), Fred Malaby CIH, CSP (OSHA Region 1), Dr. MaryBeth Smuts
USEPA-New England)

Pictured (L-R) are Air Duct Services’ Wayne Cerra, Ken Schaefer and Phil LeClerc presenting the $500 meeting sponsor check to Corey Briggs (President) and Andy Kalil (President-Elect)

AIHA New England Section June Evening Meeting

Wednesday, June 20, 2007
The New England Section's "end of year" (2006-2007) night meeting was held at Anthony's Pier 4 on the waterfront in Boston, Massachusetts. The meeting's first presentation included a talk on the use of computational fluid dynamics in industrial hygiene by NEAIHA member Clyde Porter, PE,CIH of Air Science and Engineering, LLC.  The membership was then privileged to have Capt. Dan Burbank of USCG Academy and NASA give a very interesting presentation on the health and safety hazards and risks of space travel.  Capt. Burbank provided information on the investigation of the Columbia disaster and some of his personal experiences as a member of  Atlantis.

The meeting also included the presentation of end-of-service awards to Susan Marx, CIH (Treasurer for the past 2 years), Jeff Kaminski, CIH (Past Treasurer, President-Elect, President, and Past-President), and Mike Lombardi, CIH (initial Webmaster).  Thanks again for your service to the organization!

Election results were provided by Jeff Kaminski and included the following:  Andy Kalil, CIH: President-Elect and Dick Aichelmann: Treasurer.  Congratulations to Andy and Dick and we look forward to your service for the coming years.

Corey Briggs, CIH (President-Elect) then provided the membership with a "hands-on" tour of the recently re-vamped (and winner of the 2007 AIHA Best Website Award) NEAIHA website.

The last order of business for the evening was the "transfer of the NEAIHA gavel" from President Don Delikat, CIH to President-Elect Corey Briggs, CIH.  Don will now serve as Past President and Corey will be the new President for the NEAIHA 2007-2008 time period.

Lastly, the June meeting was graciously sponsored by Tim Cowher of Flow Sciences and Scott Williams with Process Control Solutions (New England Rep. for Flow Sciences).  We want to express our thanks to Flow Sciences for their continued support of NEAIHA (2 year sponsor).

NEAIHA's "Presidents" with June Meeting Speakers

L-R

Don Delikat (President), Corey Briggs (President Elect), Capt. Dan Burbank (USCG/NASA), Jeff Kaminski (Past President), and Clyde Porter (Air Science and Engineering

Flow Sciences' Tim Cower Presenting Sponsor Check for June Meeting to Don Delikat

L-R

Corey Briggs (President Elect), Scott Williams (Process Control Solutions - New England Representative for Flow Sciences), Tim Cowher (Flow Sciences), Don Delikat (President), and Bart Ellingsen (Secretary)

Jeff Kaminski Receiving Award for Past Service to NEAIHA from Corey Briggs.  Other than a director, has Jeff served in all offices of NEAIHA.

Tribute to the NASA Speaker - The Delikats and Rebecca

Don Delikat, Rebecca (Matt Norton's daughter), and Don's son played the Elton John tune Rocket Man for our keynote speaker of the evening, Capt Dan Burbank of the USCG and NASA.

AIHA New England Section April All-Day Seminar

Thursday April 26, 2007

The New England Section's April meeting was an all-day seminar on the topic of Hearing Protection and Conservation that was presented by Mr. Elliott Berger and Ms. Laurie Wells of Aearo Technologies (EAR/Peltor) [www.aearo.com and www.e-a-r.com/hearing conservation].  The meeting was co-sponsored by NEAIHA, Airgas, the Massachusetts Academy of Audiology, and the Massachusetts Speech-Language-Hearing Association and was attended by over 150 OHS professionals from the New England region.

The first half of the day-long seminar included in-depth, technical presentations by Mr. Berger on hearing protection testing, rating and performance; selection, fitting, use, and care of hearing protection devices; and communicating in noisy environments.  In the afternoon session, Ms. Wells presented an overview of hearing loss prevention programs, a detailed discussion on audiometric testing, and information of recordable hearing loss and determination of work relatedness.  She also provided some timely and informative training tips and resources! 

Pictured are (L-R)

Jeff Kaminiski (Past President), Don Delikat, CIH (President), Laurie Wells (Aearo-EAR), Elliott Berger (Aearo-EAR), Corey Briggs, CIH, CET (President-Elect) and Brandie Turner (Aearo-Marketing)

AIHA New England Section March Evening Meeting

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

The New England Section's March night meeting was recently held at the USEPA Region 1 New England Regional Laboratory (NERL) in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.   The meeting included presentations on unique air sampling methods and analysis (including a investigation on air emissions from a mummy) by Columbia Analytical Services and the roles, responsibilities, and challenges of managing an EHS program for government agency by the Region 1 EHS Manager, Beth Deabay.  After the presentations, lab representatives gave section memebers on a tour of the 69,000 square foot lab facility which possess a LEED 1.0 Gold Rating based on all of the "green" features incorporated into the building.  NERL was the first laboratory facility in New England and the first EPA building nationally, to receive a LEED rating at any level.

Pictured are (L-R), Don Delikat, CIH (NEAIHAPresident), Steve DeMattei (USEPA-NERL), Beth Deabay (USEPA Region 1 EHS Manager), Corey Briggs, CIH, CET (NEAIHA President Elect), Alyson Fortune (Columbia Analytica Services), and Nora Conlon (USEPA-NERL).

The New England Section recently had their annual joint meeting with the Greater Boston Chapter of the ASSE on January 17, 2007. An OSHA Update was provided by Mr. Tim Irving of OSHA Region 1 and an indepth discusson on EPA's CAMEO software was presented by Mr. Len Wallace of EPA - Region 1.

Pictured in the back, from left to right;
Corey Briggs, CIH, CET (President Elect- NEAIHA), Len Wallance (USEPA - Region 1), Mr. Irving, Remi Fleuette (President - Boston ASSE), Don Delikat (President-NEAIHA),
Pictured in the front, from left to right;
Jeff Kaminski (Past President - NEAIHA) and Margi Lobaton (Past President - Boston ASSE)

Sponsored by:

September meeting sponsored by:

June 2006 meeting sponsored by:

March 2006 and June 2007 meeting sponsored by: