2025 NJAIHA Professional Development Courses

The NJAIHA will be hosting Professional Development Courses (PDCs) on Thursday, December 4th, the day prior to the Northeast Industrial Hygiene Conference (NEIHCE). The PDCs will be presented IN-PERSON at the PSE&G facility on Hadley Road in South Plainfield, NJ. Each course is offered at an early-registration discount of $125 until 11/24, and afterwards will increase to $150 per course. Register Here

Courses Include:

• Course #1: (8:30am-12:00pm): Why Ethics Matters: Understanding the Impact on OEHS, presented by Nancy Orr, CIH, CSP, FAIHA Course 1 Info

• Course #2: (8:30am-12:00pm): Are You Prepared to be an Expert Witness, presented by Marc S. Gaffrey, Esq. Course 2 Info

12:00pm-1:00pm: Catered Lunch Included

• Course #3: (1:00pm-4:30pm): Principles of Good Practice: Occupational Exposure Assessment, presented by John R. Mulhausen, PhD, CIH, CSP, FAIHA Course 3 Info

• Course #4 (1:00pm-4:30pm): Tales from the Archived Industrial Hygiene Files, presented by Bernard L. Fontaine, Jr., M.Sc., CIH, CSP, FAIHA and John J. Svagr, CIH, MPH, RSO Course 4 Info

PDC Registration:

Course 1 (8:30 am – 12:00 pm):

Topic: Why Ethics Matters: Understanding the Impact on OEHS

**This course fulfills the ABIH ethics requirement for CIH recertification maintenance credit.**

Speaker: Nancy Orr, CIH, CSP, FAIHA

Nancy Orr has over 40 years of experience in the occupational safety, health, and environmental protection fields.  She is the owner of Sage Health and Safety, LLC, a NYC based firm providing comprehensive safety and health consulting services, since 2018.  Prior to opening Sage, Nancy was the Senior Director, Environment, Health and Safety, Global Operations at Becton Dickinson and Company (BD), a multinational medical device and life sciences company with manufacturing operations in 24 countries.  She started her career as an OSHA Compliance Officer and Industrial Hygienist for two major insurance companies, and Manager of Health and Safety at ITT Corporation in NY.  She has also served as a Councilor of the American Academy of Industrial Hygiene, a Trustee of the American Industrial Hygiene Foundation, and has held several offices of the Metro NY AIHA section.  She is a CIH, CSP and Fellow of the AIHA.  Nancy has a deep interest in ethics and has shared this enthusiasm in the form of PDCs and seminars sponsored by National AIHA, ASSP and  local and regional professional meetings.  She is also a member of the Executive Board of Safety 4 Nonprofits, Inc – a nonprofit devoted to providing pro-bono safety services to other nonprofits.

Course Description:

This PDC on ethical practice within the occupational safety and health field helps participants develop an increased awareness of the nature of ethical issues, how they arise and how they may be resolved.  This includes  an examination of how recent deliberate ethical lapses by business leaders have seriously damaged the financial and reputational futures of some of the world’s revered brands.  From this starting point we will explore the following:

• Understanding the nature of personal values and their role in guiding conduct.
• Applying tools and skills to analyze ethical dilemmas.
• Exploring the differences between legal, illegal, ethical and non-ethical positions.
• Learning to identify and resolve potential ‘conflict of interest’ situations.
• Making higher quality ethical decisions.

Participants in this course will:

• Acquire essential skills necessary to make higher quality ethical decisions.
• Examine the role of personal values and their application to decision–making.
• Explore how to resolve situations where truth conflicts with loyalty; justice and mercy.
• Discuss several resolution approaches to dilemmas in search of “the higher right.”

Course 2 (8:30 am – 12:00 pm):

Topic: Are You Prepared to be an Expert Witness

Speaker: Marc S. Gaffrey, Esq.

Marc S. Gaffrey is a Partner, Hoagland, Longo, Moran, Dunst & Doukas, LLP. For more than three decades, Marc has been at the forefront of environmental and toxic tort litigation, managing high-stakes matters for major corporations, utilities, and well-known brands nationwide.  He serves and has served as National Coordinating Counsel to companies across the country, overseeing litigation strategy and trial teams by retaining and directing local counsel, engaging experts, and ensuring consistency in defense approaches.  Marc is also trusted as General Counsel to one of his national clients, reflecting the depth of his relationships and the confidence clients place in his judgment. Marc is among the few attorneys in the nation who holds membership in the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), giving him a distinctive scientific and technical perspective that informs his practice.  With an academic background in biochemistry, he combines legal acumen with scientific insight to resolve complex disputes involving toxic exposures, product liability, and environmental contamination.  His work has spanned virtually every major toxic tort concern of the last generation, including asbestos, lead, silica, talc, benzene, PCBs, pesticides, and industrial chemicals.

Course Description:

This PDC will examine the complex aspects of translating the science and practice of industrial hygiene and other occupational health, safety, and environmental disciplines from the workplace to the courtroom. Preparation of legal related court documents such as consultation, expert opinions, affidavits, depositions and trial testimony will be reviewed so that practicing industrial hygienists and other EHS professionals understand how their technical work may be used in legal proceedings. In addition, attendees will gain an understanding of how to prepare for and serve as a legal consultant and/or expert witness in these often complex cases.

As part of this PDC, attendees will break out into small groups to prepare to litigate a mock litigation scenario. This will be a facilitated exercise to enable participants to play the role of plaintiff, professional, employer and possibly other parties in a typical lawsuit of this nature.

Course 3 (1:00 pm – 4:30 pm):

Topic: Principles of Good Practice: Occupational Exposure Assessment

Speaker: John R. Mulhausen, PhD, CIH, CSP, FAIHA

John Mulhausen Ph.D., CIH, CSP, retired in 2018 from 3M where he worked for 31 years in a variety of global health and safety roles, most recently as Director of Corporate Safety and Industrial Hygiene.  He has authored/co-authored over 100 presentations, publications or professional development courses and contributed 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 the AIHA, a past President of AIHA, and a recipient of ABIH’s Lifetime Achievement Award, AIHA’s Edward J. Baier Technical Achievement Award, and AIHA’s Henry F. Smyth Award.

Course Description:

The Principles of Good Practice (PGP) initiative was established by the AIHA Guideline Foundation to document OEHS professional practices that have been determined to reliably and effectively protect workers from unacceptable risks.  The first PGP developed covers the Occupational Exposure Assessment area of practice.  It provides a summary of risk-critical practices for each stage of an exposure risk assessment and management program, including guidance that will improve the accuracy of exposure judgments.

The PGP bring value at every stage in a practitioner’s career, serving as a “quick start guide” for students and early career professionals, and as a continuous practice improvement guide for midcareer and more experienced professionals.  The PGP also serve as a communication tool to help convey to an organization’s senior management what experts have defined as important practices to safeguard the health of workers and their communities.

This presentation will provide participants with an understanding of the PGP initiative, its importance to their professional OEHS practice, and explore the Occupational Exposure Assessment PGP and its use for improving exposure risk assessment and management practices and outcomes.

Learning objectives (2 or 3): Please attach or describe here.

• Familiarity with the AIHA Principles of Good Practice Initiative.
• Understanding of key aspects of the Occupational Exposure Assessment PGP.
• Knowledgeable about using the Occupational Exposure Assessment PGP to improve exposure risk assessment and management practices.

Course 4 (1:00 pm – 4:30 pm):

Topic: Tales from the Archived Industrial Hygiene Files

Speaker: Bernard L. Fontaine, Jr., M.Sc., CIH, CSP, FAIHA and John J. Svagr, CIH, MPH, RSO

Mr. Fontaine has over 47 years professional and business experience in regulatory compliance, insurance, national defense, environmental services, and consulting.  He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Laboratory Science from Northeastern University and completed his clinical internship at Brigham Hospital for Women in Boston.  He later received his Master of Science degree in Industrial Hygiene from the University of Oklahoma School of Public Health. Mr. Fontaine is Managing Partner of The Windsor Consulting Group, Inc., a Certified Industrial Hygienist, Certified Safety Professional, AIHA Distinguished Lecturer and AIHA Fellow as well as Past President of the NJ section of AIHA and former Board of Directors member of Workplace Health Without Borders – US branch and AIHA Board of Directors.  He has served on numerous task forces and committees. He was a frequent lecturer at the AIHce conferences and collaborates with various national and international societies, organizations and associations on the future direction of industrial hygiene and occupational health.  Mr. Fontaine was a mentor with Workplace Health Without Borders and the American Industrial Hygiene Association.  He was awarded the 2021 American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) Presidents Award and 2021 Social Responsibility Award on the Back to Work Safety guidance documents for businesses not covered by other organizations. In 2021, he and his AIHA team of volunteers completed a project to identify occupational health hazards associated with each work tasks with each of the SIC market segments.  The compiled information was designed to teach students, early career professionals, and OEHS professionals transitioning into a new industry about the potential occupational health hazards.  The information can be used for retrospective analysis of the industry as new technology and information evolves.  Mr. Fontaine also compiled a digital presentation of the global work tasks performed in both developed and developing countries to understand the current exposures, controls and resources needed to protect all workers worldwide.  In 2022, Mr. Fontaine received the Lawrence Birkner and Ruth McIntyre-Birkner Award from the AIHA Leadership and Management Committee.

Mr. Svagr is currently semi-retired and is Principal of Green Mountain EH&S.  Before retirement, he was the former director of EH&S for 22 years at the New York Blood Center (NYBC) and New York Blood Center Enterprises (NYBCe).  In addition, he was the NYBC Radiation Safety Officer (RSO), the safety officer for the NYBC Institutional Biosafety and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees. From 1979 to 2002, Mr. Svagr successfully ran an EH&S consultation company ISIS-EH&S.  Plus his corporate world experience included increasing levels responsibility. For Kraft Foods, he was Industrial Hygiene Manager for North American Operations.  In addition, he was a Regulatory Compliance Manager for a welding supply manufacturer and training academy.  Finally, he filled Industrial Hygiene roles with the New York City Transit Authority, American Cyanamid, and General Electric.

Course Description:

In the evolving field of industrial hygiene, archived case files represent more than historical curiosity—they are vital repositories of lessons learned, cautionary tales, and evidence of how exposure assessments, controls, and worker protections have succeeded or failed over time.  This presentation unearths selected case studies drawn from historical inspections, exposure investigations, and remediation efforts to illuminate enduring themes and emergent insights.

Attendee Teams will participate in several case study exercises:

• Heat Stress Fatality investigation at a Grey-Iron/Steel Foundry and Hazardous Encounters.
• Recovery of $200k Chemical Processing Vessel after urethane-based product accidently hardens.
• Elemental mercury exposure during Remediation at the Thomas Edison laboratory in East Orange, NJ
• Exposure challenges during rehabilitation of the Path Tunnels from Newark NJ to Manhattan.

Within this PDC, your competencies will be evaluated to measure your effectiveness in addressing workplace challenges.

This presentation will:

• Bring to life several archived case studies and storytelling with lessons learned and a field diary approach to the session, including incidents involving Inorganic lead and arsenic, asbestos, chemical exposures, and airborne particulates.
• Analyze how and why industrial hygiene practices in these cases did—or did not—prevent overexposures.  Key factors such as engineering controls, personal protective equipment (PPE), regulatory evolution, awareness of health risks, and socio-political pressures will be explored.
• Explore Surprises: hidden occupational health exposures, safety considerations, mis-diagnosed health outcomes, emerging contaminants, or regulatory gaps that only retroactively resolve how hazard control was inadequate.

Attendees will leave with not just real stories, but actionable lessons: how to recognize, anticipate and avoid common pitfalls; how to integrate historical precedents into modern industrial hygiene programs; and how to build an industrial hygiene practice that is both more resilient and more ethically accountable.  So put on your industrial hygiene detective hat and attend this Professional Development Course (PDC).