AIHA Connect 2025 was held May 19–21 at the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Conference news from The Synergist is published on this page.
Leading with Warmth and Competence
“You don’t have to be a boss to be a leader,” Evy Poumpouras advised AIHA Connect 2025 attendees in her closing keynote on May 21. As a former Secret Service agent and New York City police officer, Poumpouras has experience with the interpersonal aspects of leadership that translate into other fields, including occupational and environmental health and safety. READ
Renewable Diesel "Not Necessarily a Silver Bullet" in Mining
On May 19 at AIHA Connect 2025, Rustin Reed, CIH, CSP, presented an overview of a study that examined exposures and health effects associated with the use of regular diesel compared with renewable diesel in a mining environment. READ
Considerations for Controlling Ototoxicant Exposures
Ototoxicants, or chemicals that can cause hearing loss, were first identified in the early 1900s. But much about these substances remains mysterious, as Alex Cardone, MPH, CIH, explained in an educational session held May 20 at AIHA Connect 2025 in Kansas City. READ
OSHA Provides Update on Silica Enforcement Initiative Targeting Engineered Stone
In an educational session delivered on May 21 at AIHA Connect 2025, Jennifer Kim, CIH, MPH, the director of the Office of Health Enforcement at OSHA, updated attendees on the agency’s focused inspection initiative addressing respirable crystalline silica hazards in the engineered stone fabrication and installation industries. READ
Data-Sharing for TSCA Risk Evaluations: Context Is Everything
When companies receive a request for data from EPA for the purpose of completing a chemical risk evaluation under the Toxic Substances Control Act, they aren’t necessarily aware of how the agency will use the data. At the educational session “Exposure Factors for TSCA Risk Evaluations” held May 21 at AIHA Connect 2025 in Kansas City, three OEHS professionals shared their observations of the EPA risk evaluation process that can prepare companies to meet the agency’s expectations. READ
Long COVID's Effects on Workplace Safety
The lingering effects of long COVID can affect workplace safety, and occupational and environmental health and safety professionals are in a position to do something about it, Caitlin Lang, MA, explained during a pop-up session on May 20 at AIHA Connect 2025. READ
Industrial Hygienists Urge Exposure Assessment of Legacy Asbestos Uses, Naloxone Programs
Most OEHS professionals are aware of EPA’s final rulemaking on chrysotile asbestos, just as most know about the nationwide opioid crisis. However, presenters of an AIHA Connect pop-up session on May 20 urged attendees to consider overlooked aspects of both events that may affect individual workplaces. READ
Some Challenges with EPA's TSCA Data Requirements
The Toxic Substances Control Act requires EPA to consider several subpopulations when determining whether a chemical presents unreasonable risk to health or the environment. One of those subpopulations is workers, and in recent years EPA has been requiring companies to submit occupational exposure data to the agency. At an AIHA Connect session held May 20 in Kansas City, three OEHS professionals drew on their own experiences to present recommendations for how companies can successfully engage with EPA. READ
Insights for Managing Enzyme Exposures
On Tuesday morning at AIHA Connect 2025, two consultants highlighted the importance of protecting workers from exposures to enzymes, which are proteins that can help speed chemical reactions or break down organic materials. READ
Talking about Risk
The industrial hygiene profession revolves around hazards. IH is
nearly universally defined as the anticipation, recognition, evaluation,
and control of hazards, plus the confirmation of those controls
(ARECC). But another essential part of an IH’s job, communication with
workers and management, isn’t covered by ARECC. And according to George
Gruetzmacher, when IHs talk with these audiences, focusing on hazards
can be misleading. READ
A Collaboration Between Journalists and OEHS Professionals to Protect Workers
Until 2018, many experts in government and industry believed coal workers’ pneumoconiosis to be in decline in the United States. But in a series of investigations conducted over 12 years, journalist Howard Berkes helped show that the disease was not only extant but increasing among Appalachian coal miners. READ
Using AI to Manage the Risks of Infrequent Events
Many people marvel at old photos of iron workers walking across beams several stories above the ground, with no harnesses to save them if they slip. Thankfully, workplace health and safety has come a long way since those days. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the human mind’s ability to understand risk: we’re no better at that now than the iron workers, or, for that matter, our long-dead ancestors. READ
OEHS Professionals Assess “Performance” vs. “Performative” Metrics
Performance metrics help OEHS professionals understand, manage, and improve organization and program functions and show that processes are in control. But they may be confused with what Alan Leibowitz called “performative or vanity metrics.” READ
Knowing What’s Normal: How Companies Can Better Support Their Neurodivergent Workers
Last night, while eating dinner at his Kansas City hotel, David Finch, the opening keynoter for AIHA Connect 2025, realized that the presentation he’d prepared wasn’t good enough. So, he finished his meal, went back to his room, and completely revised a presentation he’d been working on for six months. READ
Author and Engineer David Finch Advises AIHA Connect Attendees on Navigating Neurodivergence in the Workplace
Engineer and bestselling memoirist David Finch shared strategies for accommodating neurodivergent professionals in the opening keynote at AIHA Connect 2025 on May 19. Afterwards, attendees spoke with Finch directly in an “Ask the Expert” session. READ
