April 2019 – President’s Message

Happy Earth Month!  We are part of the environmental movement and since Earth Day is April 22, let’s just celebrate the entire month.

Thanks to our Outreach Team for organizing and attending an outreach event last month.  The guidance counselor conference attended by Dan Priesler resulted in an invitation for NJAIHA to attend the Pleasant Point career day.  Candice Kowalewski, M.P.H. of ALC Environmental attended and represented NJAIHA with a presentation of a career in Industrial Hygiene.  Candice used the “What is IH – High School Presentation” provided by national AIHA to discuss IH careers to an auditorium full of students and explained education requirements, monitoring equipment, respiratory protection and why she enjoys her job.   For anyone interested in supporting future outreach events, please know that national AIHA has additional resources on their website and provides hardcopy IH Heroes comic books within one day of request.

We had a well-attended March NJAIHA joint meeting with NJ ASSP and MABSA that drew a crowd of over 60 attendees.(see photos beginning on page 11)  Kelly McKinney, Senior Director of Emergency Management + Enterprise Resilience at NYU Langone Health presented “Moment of Truth: Are we ready for the next big environmental disaster?” which focused on what we learned from past disasters and how to prepare for future disasters. Kelly discussed his new book “Moment of Truth” and how we should respond to emergency situations from an industrial hygiene, environmental, health and safety point.  On the related topic of designing new facilities and reviewing existing reaction systems to ensure that they are adequately protected against the possibility of runaway reactions, Guibing Zhao, PhD, Technical Director of Dekra Process Safety Americas presented “Two-Phase Flow Pressure Relief System for Runaway Reactions”.

For the April dinner meeting we have great presenters including Eugenia Mirica, Ph.D., Materials Science Laboratory Manager, EMSL Analytical, Inc. who will present on Combustible Dust and Carol Brozosky, CHMM, CET President of PTP Consulting will present The Twelve Traps of the Terrible Trainer.

Earth Day is coming up and it’s time to give back to the environmental community!  There is a great opportunity to volunteer for President-elect.  I have enjoyed participating and encourage others to reach out to if you are interested or have any questions.  The term for this position is one year and the president-elect is primarily responsible for organizing the monthly meetings.  At the end of this year, the president-elect transitions to president for one year and then past-president for a third year.  We have a great group of volunteers on the board and I am sure whoever steps into this role will enjoy their time and involvement.  Please contact me or Scott if you are interested.

We look forward to seeing all of you at our April meeting which is our Past Presidents’ Meeting and always a great gathering.

Sincerely,
Doug Glorie, PE, CIH
President NJAIHA