Course Description

Accurate exposure risk decisions are critical to risk management programs that protect workers and optimize the use of limited resources. This video series will teach you a basic understanding of the properties of lognormally distributed exposure profiles and how to use traditional and Bayesian statistical analysis tools to make accurate exposure risk decisions based on monitoring data. The use of several freely available statistical tools will be demonstrated using multiple examples. Upon completion of the course video series, you will have the knowledge needed for the successful completion of the exam for the AIHA Exposure Decision Analysis Registry.

Course Outline

  • Course Introduction
  • Video 1A: Exposure Variability and the Importance of Using Statistics to Improve Judgements
  • Video 1B: Rules of Thumb for Interpreting Exposure Monitoring Data
  • Video 2: Introduction to Bayesian Statistical Approaches and Their Advantages
  • Video 3A: Free Bayesian Statistical Tools: IHDA Student Edition
  • Video 3B: Free Bayesian Statistical Tools: Expostats
  • Video 3C: Introduction to IHSTAT_Bayes™
  • Video 4: Implementing AIHA Strategy Using Statistical Tools: Examples
  • Making Accurate Exposure Risk Decisions Practice Questions
  • Course Evaluation

Target Audience

This course is relevant for anyone seeking to improve their exposure risk decisions, including students, early-career professionals, and experienced practitioners.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion, the participant will be able to:

  • Describe why using statistical tools for exposure data interpretation is critical to making accurate exposure judgments.
  • Describe basic principles of inferential statistics applied to lognormally distributed data
  • Describe and apply strategies for improving exposure judgments using the statistical analysis of monitoring data.
  • Analyze data using freely available traditional and Bayesian statistical tools.
  • Demonstrate competency in the analysis of exposure monitoring data by applying to sit for the AIHA Exposure Decision Analysis Registry examination.

Questions?

This pdf document walks you through the process of registering for the course and accessing it in the AIHA University Online Classroom.

Have questions or need additional information? Contact us.

"

Whether you are new to IH or a long time professional, I urge you to view Making Accurate Exposure Risk Decisions. The presentations were the best explanations ever of IH statistics. The course goes quickly. The clarity and level of detail was perfect. Then go on to apply your learnings when interpreting IH exposure data.

"
Joe Damiano MS CIH FAIHA (Retired)
"

I am about halfway through this course, and I want to congratulate you all on a well-designed, presented, and easy-to-understand course. At the beginning of the course, you described industrial hygiene as a quality control and quality assurance process that often takes place with limited data. This concept really resonated with me. Some of IH practice is designing and implementing quality control processes to reduce worker exposure. The validation process demonstrates that the engineering, administrative, and work practices being are implemented as designed and intended and includes a process to make changes or perform corrective actions when problems are observed in how the program is working. The verification process uses sampling and monitoring uses to determine whether program goals are met and the confidence that exposure estimates reflect the true conditions. It has been an eye-opener for me.

"
David Lipton, CIH
Industrial Hygiene Consultant • N.C. Department of Health and Human Services​

Instructors

Andrew D. Perkins MS, CIH, CSP, COHC

Mr. Perkins has worked in the Occupational Safety and Health field since 1999 and is currently Corporate, Senior Industrial Hygienist at Alabama Power a Southern Company. Andrew holds a BS in Computer Information Systems and an MS in Occupational Safety and Health/Industrial Hygiene from Murray State University in Murray Kentucky. He has earned the professional credentials of Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH), Certified Safety Professional (CSP), and Certified Occupational Hearing Conservationist (COHC). Mr. Perkins is a member of the American Industrial Hygiene Association’s, Exposure Assessment Strategies Committee. In his current role he provides Industrial Hygiene services to Alabama Power and Southern Company’s electrical generation, transmission, distribution and supporting organizations. He was previously employed with Briggs and Stratton in Murray, KY from 1999 to 2004 and Vulcan Materials Company located in Birmingham, AL from 2004 to 2013. His work has allowed him to have responsibility for company-wide quality and effectiveness of Safety and Health/Industrial Hygiene work being provided at over 700 locations in more than 30 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, the Bahamas and Mexico for companies with up to 42,000 employees. 

Jérôme Lavoué Ph.D., MS

Department of environmental and occupational health,  School of public health, University of Montreal
Initially trained as an industrial chemist in France, Jérôme turned to toxicology and risk analysis in a public health perspective. His research interests include exposure assessment sciences, exploitation of exposure databases, development of strategies for risk analysis in the workplace, and the creation of practical tools to support occupational health stakeholders, particularly using Bayesian statistical approaches. He holds a chemical engineer diploma from France, a master's degree in environmental and occupational health and a Ph.D. in public health from University of Montreal. Jerome led the creation of the Expostats exposure data analysis toolset and, more, recently, of the Webexpo open-source library of algorithms for the Bayesian analysis of exposure measurements. 

Paul Hewett Ph.D, MS, CIH, FAIHA

Paul Hewett, Ph.D., CIH is the founder and President of Exposure Assessment Solutions, Inc. Previously, he worked for 25 years as an industrial hygienist for NIOSH, in the Division of Respiratory Disease Studies, where he specialized in the measurement of pneumoconiosis producing dusts. Dr. Hewett received an MS in industrial hygiene from the University of Central Missouri and a Ph.D. in industrial hygiene from the University of Pittsburgh, School of Public Health in 1991, and is certified by the American Board of Industrial Hygiene. He is the author of numerous articles and chapters on exposure assessment, statistics, and predictive modeling for industrial hygienists, past chair of the AIHA Exposure Assessment Strategies Committee, and recipient of the Edward J. Baier Technical Achievement Award for his work applying Bayesian statistics to decision making in occupational exposure assessment. Dr. Hewett also developed the IHDataAnalyst (statistical analysis software for occupational and environmental exposure data) and the Task Exposure Assessment Simulator (software for predicting occupational and consumer exposures using exposure models).

John Mulhausen Ph.D., MS, CIH, CSP, FAIHA

John Mulhausen Ph.D., CIH, CSP, served as AIHA President from 2021-22. He retired in 2018 from 3M where he worked for 31 years in a variety of global health and safety risk management roles, most recently as Director of Corporate Safety and Industrial Hygiene. He has authored / co-authored over 100 presentations, publications or professional development courses in forums throughout the world and contributed advice and expertise on various working committees sponsored by NIOSH, AIHA, ACGIH, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine. John is an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, a Fellow of AIHA, recipient of ABIH’s Lifetime Achievement Award and AIHA’s Edward J. Baier Technical Achievement Award and Henry F. Smyth Award.


Topics Risk