AIHce EXP 2022 was held May 23–25 at the Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Conference news from The Synergist is published on this page.
OSHA's Frederick Updates OEHS Professionals on Agency Priorities
OSHA Deputy Assistant Secretary James Frederick addressed attendees at the closing session of AIHce EXP 2022 in Nashville, summarizing the agency’s priorities and providing updates on several rulemakings. READ MORE
Implementing EHMRs in Healthcare
Two representatives from a regional hospital system joined AIHce EXP 2022 yesterday to discuss practical considerations related to distributing elastomeric half-mask respirators, or EHMRs, to a large population of healthcare workers and training them on their proper use. READ MORE
Bridging the Data Gap: Using Robots to Simulate Human Exposures
One of Jennifer Shin’s first projects for ExxonMobil was measuring dock workers’ exposures to hydrocarbons during transfer of a petroleum product. As she explained in a technical session at AIHce EXP 2022, the task was carried out only once or twice a year. If she wasn’t available to take samples on the appointed day, or if someone neglected to tell her when the task would be performed, she had to wait months before getting another chance. READ MORE
The Many Challenges of Bioaerosol Sampling
During the COVID-19 pandemic, OEHS professionals have been called on to conduct sampling designed to determine the presence and concentration of SARS-CoV-2. But, as bioaerosol scientist Quinn Aithinne demonstrated yesterday at AIHce EXP 2022, that seemingly simple charge is fraught with difficulty. READ MORE
Pandemic Planning and Communication: Expectation vs. Reality
When many OEHS professionals were engaged in pandemic planning in the early 2000s, according to Dana Stahl, their focus was on preparing for a flu outbreak. As Stahl explained at AIHce EXP 2022, while the prospect of pandemic flu was terrifying—the 1918 pandemic killed an estimated 40 million people worldwide—much had been learned about the virus since then. Of course, the pandemic these planners prepared for didn’t occur, or at least it hasn’t occurred yet. READ MORE
Training, Readiness, Leadership: An Astronaut Reflects
In his keynote address at AIHce EXP 2022, Capt. Chris Cassidy, former NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy SEAL, spoke of the importance of training and readiness in his career and beyond. READ MORE
NIOSH Tool Allows Users to Measure, Assess Worker Well-Being
On Monday morning at AIHce EXP 2022, NIOSH’s Chia-Chia Chang, MPH, MBA, introduced attendees to the agency’s Worker Well-Being Questionnaire, or WellBQ, a tool intended to assess the well-being of workers in several areas, including quality of working life, circumstances outside of work, and physical and mental health status. Chang, who is coordinator for partnership and new opportunity development for the Office of Total Worker Health (TWH) at NIOSH, described worker well-being as a multidimensional concept: many factors contribute to worker well-being, and well-being affects many things. READ MORE