AIHA Connect 2026 was held June 1–3 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. Conference news from The Synergist is published on this page.
Collecting "Samples" with Direct-Reading Instruments
Two speakers from OSHA would like to see employers use personal direct-reading monitors as more than warning devices. At AIHA Connect, Phil Smith, PhD, CIH, FAIHA, and Todd Jordan, MSPH, CIH, explained that data from these life-saving devices should also be treated as "samples"—digital records of exposures to be used by occupational and environmental health and safety professionals to identify hazards and protect workers. READ
A Multi-Level Approach to Job Stress
Work is a source of daily stress for many people, regardless of industry or occupation, but occupational and environmental health and safety professionals can help address it, like any other workplace hazard, Jenn Cavallari, ScD, CIH, told attendees of an educational session at AIHA Connect on June 2. READ
Agents of Change: The Imminent AI Future
For the author and futurist Tom Koulopoulos, behavioral changes brought about by technology are as interesting, and as potentially significant, as the technologies themselves. In his closing keynote at AIHA Connect in New Orleans on June 3, Koulopoulos mused on the upheavals unleashed by AI and the accompanying behavioral changes that, he believes, will inevitably follow. READ
Lessons from a Confined Space Tragedy
In November 2018, three employees of an Alberta cryogenics facility died after exposure to nitrogen gas in a confined space. This incident was the focus of an educational session at AIHA Connect in New Orleans that showed how deficiencies in process design and training contributed to the tragic outcome. READ
Assessing Legionella Prevention Efforts
At AIHA Connect 2026 in New Orleans, a pair of educational sessions held back-to-back on June 3 appraised current efforts to prevent Legionnaires’ disease through the lens of recent outbreaks in New York City. READ
OEHS and EPA: Collaborating on Chemical Risk Evaluations
The implementation of the Toxic Substances Control Act has been a major source of tension between EPA and industry OEHS professionals in recent years. In an educational session given June 2 at AIHA Connect 2026, Paul DeLeo, PhD, described how much of this tension results from different ways of looking at chemicals. READ
A Delicate Balance: Right-Sizing Ego in OEHS
OEHS professionals are constantly communicating with workers, community members, and company leaders. As Abby Holovach suggested during an educational session on June 3 at AIHA Connect, these kinds of interactions are where the impacts of ego—both positive and negative—typically manifest. OEHS professionals with outsized egos, for example, might dismiss feedback that doesn’t support their understanding of a hazard or become defensive when their employer brings in a consultant. The danger, Holovach said, is that ego-distorted priorities will lead to unethical decision-making. READ
A New Interface: Wildfires Meet Refinery Fires
As wildfires increase in frequency and occur closer to industrial zones, occupational and environmental health and safety professionals must be prepared to address concurrent chemical and smoke exposures and new risks, a pair of presenters told AIHA Connect attendees. Rajan Puri, MD, MPH, the corporate medical director and physician overseeing the clinics of a nationwide oil and gas company, and industrial hygienist Wayne LaCombe, CIH, CSP, know from experience the benefits of collaboration when it comes to tackling the “convergence challenge” of refinery fires and wildfires. READ
Historic Exposure Assessment
If an OEHS professional has to characterize the health effects of chronic exposures, how should they go about it? This was the subject of “Forensic Hygiene: Your Work Matters Longer Than You Think,” an AIHA Connect educational session given on Tuesday by Meghan Friesen and Krista Thompson, MHSc, ROH, CRSP. Both Thompson and Friesen are occupational hygienists with Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers. Their work involves investigating historic exposures that may have caused workers’ present illnesses. READ
A Preview of the NFPA Battery Safety Code
In October 2024, a fire at a lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Fredericktown, Missouri, led to the evacuation of residents and, ultimately, complete destruction of the 225,000-square-foot building. The cause of the fire has not been determined, but investigators say that thermal runaway played a role. The incident, and many others like it, illustrates the need for guidance in the safe manufacture, storage, recycling, and disposal of batteries. READ
The Health and Productivity Benefits of Emissions-Based Maintenance
In the age of electric vehicles, diesel engines may seem a quaint technology. But as Deon Swanepoel explained at an AIHA Connect educational session, diesel engines are still prevalent in underground mining, partly because they present fewer fire and explosion hazards than alternative technologies. READ
Accountability for the "Trash" School
Investigative journalist Georgia Gee "stumbled" her way into her 2024 article "The Trash School," she told the audience of the Upton Sinclair Memorial Lecture at AIHA Connect 2026 in New Orleans. Gee, a freelancer when she wrote the story for The Intercept, is now a researcher for The New York Times. READ
Notes from Underground: Sampling a Subway System
In 2023, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) hired a contractor to clean emergency equipment located in underground subway stations. Prior to cleaning, the dust was tested for lead, and one sample, taken from a cabinet that had been relatively undisturbed for roughly 15 years, was found to have a lead concentration over 2,100 micrograms per square foot. As explained by WMATA industrial hygienist Trenell Boggans in an educational session at AIHA Connect, this finding prompted additional testing focused on areas in tunnels where employees were likely to contact dust, such as ventilation shafts and rooms containing mechanical equipment. READ
An “Emerging Interest”: Occupational Exposure to OPEs
A recent Canadian study suggests that occupational exposure to organophosphate esters (OPEs), a class of chemicals used as plasticizers and flame retardants, is widespread among paramedics, firefighters, and office workers. At AIHA Connect 2026, Victoria Arrandale, a professor in the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, presented results from the study and characterized OPEs as “an occupational exposure of emerging interest.” READ
Your Brain: Under the Hood
The human brain is one of the most complicated systems in the known universe. In New Orleans on June 1, neuroscientist and science communicator David Eagleman, PhD, launched his opening keynote at AIHA Connect 2026 with a set of facts demonstrating our brains’ complexity. Its 86 billion neurons are linked via 200 trillion connections, Eagleman said. Yet most of its processes occur without our conscious knowledge, or “under the hood,” as he put it. READ