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Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed several executive orders calling for the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in government agencies and federally funded projects. Legal counsel advised AIHA that our then-current DEI policy and our status as a recipient of federal grants placed us at elevated risk of targeting by the Department of Justice. To reduce our liability, AIHA pursued two courses of action.

First, working with various volunteer groups, we updated our DEI policy and renamed it the cultural strategy policy. AIHA members are encouraged to review the new policy (PDF) and share their feedback.

Second, our Board of Directors decided that AIHA would exit the federal grants on Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year. Since the work supported by the grants has accomplished its objectives, now is an appropriate time to bring them to a close and to review what the funding helped us accomplish.

CDC Grant

AIHA received approximately $800,000 from CDC to support, for a period of five years, the development of products under the Commit to C.A.R.E. initiative (PDF). Commit to C.A.R.E. originated from our partnership with the Integrated Bioscience and Built Environment Consortium (IBEC). The CDC funding was largely pass-through to third parties, who completed the work on behalf of AIHA.

Part of the initial disbursement from CDC in early 2021 was used to update AIHA’s The Role of the Industrial Hygienist in a Pandemic, which was originally published in 2006. The updated version includes new sections on exposure assessment and controls, an expanded discussion of workplace policies, and a greater focus on communication challenges with the workforce and the public. The book is available as a free download from the AIHA website (PDF).

The remainder of the initial money funded videos on respiratory protection for infectious diseases, a webcast on pandemic-related challenges for different worker populations, and the COVID-19 Exposure Assessment Tool. The CEAT is an editable PDF that allows users to determine the relative infectious disease risk of group projects.

Other disbursements from CDC in 2022 were used to expand Commit to C.A.R.E. with knowledge products on ventilation filtration, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, vaccines, and employee testing protocols. Additional money received in 2023 supported the creation of the “Healthier Workplaces and Schools” ebook (PDF). Version 2 of the ebook is anticipated to be ready for release this summer.

Department of Transportation Grant

The AIHA Guideline Foundation has received grant money from the Department of Transportation (DOT) that funds activities related to the Emergency Response Planning Guidelines. ERPGs are air concentration guidelines for single exposures to agents and are intended to assess accident prevention and emergency response plans.

The DOT funding was awarded through the Guideline Foundation’s sponsorship of TRANSCAER (Transportation Community Awareness Emergency Response), an outreach program affiliated with the American Chemistry Council that trains emergency responders to prepare for and respond to transportation incidents involving hazardous materials. DOT supported our development of a 1.5-hour training module on ERPGs as well as a search engine that allows the ERPG Committee to access peer-reviewed literature for the purpose of gathering toxicological data and performing other research.

The Crucial Element

Our exit from these grants does not mean that AIHA’s costs will go up. The CDC grant was needed to get Commit to C.A.R.E. off the ground at the height of the pandemic, but now that the crisis has passed, our work has shifted to ongoing review and updating of materials, which is within the bandwidth of AIHA and IBEC staff. Similarly, the DOT-funded training module will be relevant for the foreseeable future, and we continue to have a strong relationship with TRANSCAER through our participation in the National TRANSCAER Task Group.

The AIHA Board and staff are grateful for the federal support and are pleased with its results. But the crucial element in these successes wasn’t the money; it was the expertise and dedication of our members and volunteers, who informed the science underlying both efforts. Thank you for everything you do.