Executive Director Engages with Students & Faculty at University of Findlay

I am excited to share the news of a recent visit to the University of Findlay by the esteemed Executive Director of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), Phillip Rauscher, CIH, CSP, MPH. This visit marked a significant collaboration between ACGIH and our university, strengthening the ties between academia and industry in the field of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences (OEHS).

Mr. Rauscher, accompanied by ACGIH’s commitment to “globally protect worker health,” engaged in fruitful discussions with the Departmental Chair, Dr. Kim Lichtveld, MSPH, Ph.D., along with faculty members Dr. Seth Ebersviller, Ph.D., CIH, and Mr. Carl Habekost, JD, COSS, COSM, who serve as Associate Professor and Assistant Professor, respectively, in the Department of Environmental, Safety & Occupational Health Programs.

The meeting was not only an opportunity for knowledge exchange but also a platform to discuss ACGIH’s support for OEHS professionals, both students and faculty, in line with their mission. The University of Findlay, being a leading institution in environmental, safety, and occupational health programs, was an ideal setting for such discussions.

One of the highlights of the visit was Mr. Rauscher’s engagement with emerging professionals in the ESOH 465 Environmental Audits and Assessment class. The students had the unique chance to learn directly from an industry leader, gaining insights into the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in the field. This interaction aimed to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world applications.

Moreover, the visit took an exciting turn as Mr. Rauscher shed light on the partnership between ACGIH and Safety for Non-profits (S4NP). This collaboration provides students with valuable experiential work experience, allowing them to apply their skills in real-world scenarios. Such initiatives align with ACGIH’s commitment to nurturing the next generation of OEHS professionals.

The University of Findlay is thrilled to be a part of this partnership, offering students the chance to participate in meaningful projects and gain hands-on experience that is invaluable in today’s competitive job market.

ACGIH will continue to foster strong relationships between academia and industry, they are confident that these collaborations will empower our students and faculty to make meaningful contributions to the field of Occupational and Environmental Health Safety Profession. We look forward to more exciting ventures and opportunities that arise from such enriching partnerships.

Thank you, Mr. Phillip Rauscher, for your insightful visit and dedication to advancing the mission of ACGIH.

Respectfully,

Donald D.  Elswick, CIH,CSP, CIT, CHMM

Congratulations To New ACGIH Executive Director

Congratulations to Phillip Rauscher, MPH, CIH, CSP! Phil has been Interim Executive Director since Fall 2022. Well deserved, he now has been appointed ACGIH’s new Executive Director.

Phil earned his BS degree in Public Health with a minor in Chemistry from Youngstown State University. He went on to earn his MPH in Environmental/Occupational Health from the University of Toledo. He has since earned a graduate certificate in Quality Management Systems from Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio.

Phil is an Industrial Safety Hygienist for the Ohio-Bureau of Workers Compensation Division of Safety and Hygiene. He works primarily in the field on comprehensive industrial hygiene and engineering surveys to anticipate, identify, evaluate and control airborne contaminants, noise levels and heat/cold stress. He also assists employers of various industries with development of safety programs and implementation of best practice guidelines and works with stakeholders to educate employers on common hazards in the workplace and compliance with federal and state law through development and implementation of both classroom and online training as well as publicly available educational materials. Phil acts as a liaison for the Chemical Committee to Ohio Safety Congress, the nation’s largest regional safety conference, to plan and facilitate educational sessions.

Phil first became involved with ACGIH in 2014. He is also a member of AIHA and has served as the Secretary of the AIHA Northwest Chapter since 2014. Phil is a Liaison/Facilitator of the Ohio Safety Congress Chemical Committee. He is a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) and a Certified Safety Professional (CSP).

As a young industrial hygienist, Phil has made outstanding contributions to the industrial hygiene profession through fieldwork and has made a significant impact as a practitioner and a leader making him a worthy recipient of the John J. Bloomfield Award. The award was announced at the ACGIH Membership Reception and Annual Meeting of the Membership and at the Mark of Excellence Breakfast.

Phil has been with ACGIH since July 2020. He was hired as head of the Science and Education Department. Winner of the 2019 John J. Bloomfield Award, Phil’s scientific knowledge and leadership skills have paid off to earn him this new and challenging position.

The ACGIH Board and Staff are very proud and look forward to Phil’s continuing ambitions to steer ACGIH in advancing the occupational/environmental health and safety world. 

Congratulations Phil!

ACGIH 2023 Election Results

ACGIH is pleased to announce the results of our recent Board of Directors and Nominating Committee election. Congratulations to all the 2023 election winners!

Jack Caravanos, DrPH, CIH will remain Chair for 2024, and COL(Ret.) Mary S. Lopez, PhD, CPE will become Treasurer.

Three Active Members were elected to serve on the Board of Directors for a 3-year term:

Representing Academia/Government:

Torey Nalbone, Ph.D., CIH, FAIHA. “When asked to consider service on the ACGIH Board again as a Director, I was certainly humbled.  My first tenure on the ACGIH Board was as Vice Chair Elect eventually becoming the Board Chair.  I served a second year as Chair when the governance now called for the Board to select it Chair among the board members. This was certainly a transitional period for in both its governance and its operations.  Five years later I again ran for the Board Director position and was selected to participate in a Board moving forward with those changes and learning different mechanisms to provide for the membership many were started but certainly not finished.  If elected to rejoin the Board, I would be grateful and appreciative of the opportunity to serve the membership for another term to assist in the completion of the transformation of a professional organization started over 10 years ago. As a member of the Board I am committed to protecting the principle that ACGIH service to the occupational and environmental health profession is a professional trust and in some cases clearly an agent for our members success and to make the resources of the organization available to All in the OEHS profession.”

“If elected, I bring previous non-profit board experiences in intellectual property rights management, fund raising and product delivery along with reliance in a diverse professional career to focus on four specific goals over the next three years.  The focus is to capitalize on the Association’s ACGIH plus years of organizational history, reputation, and context worldwide of getting the science in the hands of practitioners worldwide. The first goal, to continue pushing forward to define and develop a climate and culture for ACGIH to prosper as a 501(c)(3) charitable scientific organization (non-profit). Second, continue to work with leaders in the profession to develop and disseminate new knowledge and practices that support greater global participation.  A third is to promote a compelling business model for ACGIH, one that enhances the members’ experience, and embraces appreciation for the hardworking ACGIH staff as part of our overall change efforts. Finally, explore NEW and innovative opportunities to embolden the public visibility of products and services that result.  In summary, that ACGIH clearly offers an inter-connected continuum of products for exposure perception, planning and prevention which are backed by nine decades of a steadfast commitment to excellence and integrity.”

Dr. Nalbone is Associate Dean of the College of Engineering for Academics and Student Engagement at the University of Texas at Tyler.  The College offers seven different engineering degrees and currently has over 35 faculty and nearly 1000 students in undergraduate and graduate studies.  His degrees are from Baylor University, University of Texas at Dallas, and Texas A&M University where he earned his Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Engineering (focus on Health Protection Engineering).  He has been a continuous member of ACGIH since 1985 and has practiced industrial hygiene for over 40 years in a variety of settings which field/lab work, regulatory enforcement, regulatory oversight/management, teaching, research, and consulting.

He has served on scientific committees of ACGIH in both member and leadership roles and his volunteer experience includes Director Positions on the Academy of Industrial Hygiene (AIH) Secretary Treasurer, 4 years on the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH), 2 as Chair and most recently 4 years on the ACGIH board, 2 as Chair.  He has also served on boards in his community for children’s museum and the local symphony.  For the last 15 years he has been most involved in the continuous improvement to industrial hygiene education through ANSAC-ABET. He is a member of the Executive Committee for the Applied and Natural Sciences Accreditation Commission (ABET – ANSAC).  Serving as Commission chair from 2018 to 2019.

His continued professional service includes AIHA committees, such as Engineering, Noise Control and several technical committees of ASTM.  Dr. Nalbone is an AIHA Fellow and 2017 recipient of the ACGIH Meritorious Achievement Award.

Pam Susi, MSPH, CIH. Pamela Susi has over 30 years of experience as an industrial hygienist.   She most recently worked for Pennsylvania OSHA Consultation at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). Prior to that she served as the Exposure Assessment Program Director for CPWR – the Center for Construction Research and Training for 23 years.  Ms. Susi is Board-certified with a Master of Science in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Prior to entering the field of industrial hygiene, Ms. Susi worked as a journeyman carpenter following a four-year apprenticeship.  It was during those years that she saw firsthand the dangers of work.   Construction not only presented serious safety hazards, but also health hazards including those found on industrial rehabilitation and maintenance projects such as the smelter and chemical plant she worked on.  Health hazards were even more of a concern, in some respects, since the exposure risk was unknown.

While at CPWR she co-chaired, with NIOSH, an Engineering and Work Practice Controls Work Group for construction for twenty-two years.  She conducted research on exposure and control of silica and hexavalent chromium in construction and participated in the preparation of comments submitted to OSHA on behalf of North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) during OSHA rulemaking for the Silica and Hexavalent Chromium Standards. She has co-authored over 20 peer-reviewed publications.  She has also served as a consultant for the New Jersey Work Environment Council providing support to the New Jersey Education Association.  Ms. Susi was elected to serve on the ACGIH Board of Directors in 2020. She views the work of ACGIH as foundational to our profession; it provides the tools necessary to evaluate and control hazards in the workplace, which are always evolving.

Representing Industry/Labor:

Stephanie Lynch PhD, CSP, COHC is the Senior Technology and Research Manager at OHD, LLLP in Birmingham, Alabama, and the Vice President of the International Society of Respiratory Protection (ISRP). At OHD, Dr. Lynch manages research projects, serves on local, national, and international associations, and provides internal and external training on industrial hygiene topics.

Dr. Lynch has over 20 years of experience in industrial hygiene and safety across multiple industries and is a skilled researcher with a broad knowledge of respirator fit testing, air monitoring, noise exposure and monitoring, heat stress prevention, and ergonomics. With that specialized background, Dr. Lynch focuses on refreshing and expanding research, advancing partnerships with regulatory agencies, fostering new product development initiatives, and supporting efforts to advance occupational safety and health globally.

Dr. Lynch is passionate about education. In addition to leading the ISRP’s Education Committee, she is an adjunct professor at University of North Alabama and trainer for an OSHA Training Institute, University of Alabama SafeState. Dr. Lynch combines her varied background, extensive education, and passion for worker health, safety, and well-being to provide students a well-rounded education while offering perspectives on different avenues to apply principles and pursue or advance a career in occupational safety and health.

The 2024 ACGIH Nominating Committee will include three elected Active Members to serve a one-year term:

Representing Academia and Government:

Cynthia Cooper, CIH. Ms. Cooper is a board-certified industrial hygienist with more than 35 years of experience in comprehensive health and safety practice with 30 years of specialized industrial hygiene consultation with the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Division of Safety & Hygiene (DSH). In this role, she has provided industrial hygiene risk assessments to hundreds of Ohio employers. She also served as the Industrial Hygiene Technical Advisor for DSH. In this role, she oversaw external reporting processes, internal quality analysis, and provided professional development opportunities for IH colleagues. She is currently serving as Manager of Quality Assurance & Technical Support for DSH Field Safety Services. In this role Ms. Cooper manages a team of technical advisors that provides internal professional development, maintains a high-quality technical reporting, and develops technical resources. She also serves as a Director on the Executive Board of Ohio Valley Section of American Industrial Hygiene Association.

Seth Ebersviller, PhD, CIH. I am a fairly new CIH, but I have been doing environmental and occupational health research for about 20 years. I have worked in a variety of settings in areas of R&D, industry, manufacturing, engineering, genetics, genomics, toxicology, air pollution, and water analysis. I also worked for the US EPA in Research Triangle Park (RTP, NC) for a few years researching emissions from combustion technologies used for cooking around the world. I have been teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in the Department of Environmental, Safety, and Occupational Health at the University of Findlay since 2015, but I’ve been a teacher/instructor for 25 years (mainly classes in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Math, and a slew of Environmental and Occupational Health topics). I also have an active research program using both indoor and outdoor atmospheric reaction chambers to do air pollution research relevant to a variety of settings in industry and the environment.

Though I have been in Ohio for the last 8 years, I’m originally from Minnesota. I have also lived in North Dakota, Tennessee, and North Carolina so, given the amount of time I lived in each place, I’m about 1/2 Yankee and 1/2 Southerner (not that any self-respecting Southerner would ever agree to that). I attended St. Olaf College in MN for 1 year before transferring to TN Tech, where I graduated with a BS in Chemistry (and a minor in Art). I earned my PhD in Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Toxicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (where I met my rock star wife, Dr. Kim Lichtveld).

Other than my family, my main interests are music, movies, woodworking, and trying to figure out how my dog can be as dumb as he is, and as smart as he is, at the same time….

Representing Industry/Labor:

Beth Angus, CIH. Beth is a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) who has worked at Safex since 2015. In her role as an industrial hygienist, she performs qualitative and quantitative industrial hygiene assessments in multiple industries. Her specialties include developing industrial hygiene sampling plans, area and personal exposure monitoring for chemical and physical hazards and ventilation system assessments. She also conducts training on hazard communication, bloodborne pathogens, respirator fit testing and use, emergency response and assists with instructing the American Industrial Hygiene Association’s (AIHA) Fundamentals of Industrial Hygiene and Beyond Industrial Hygiene Fundamentals courses.

At Safex, Beth partners with numerous clients for their industrial hygiene needs. Her current projects include supporting a large plastics manufacturer and several steel manufacturing and processing facilities with their exposure assessment programs. She also spent six months supporting a health care facility as they implemented new safety programs to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Beth routinely performs indoor air quality evaluations, to evaluate moisture intrusion and airborne surface and fungal concentrations, in a variety of commercial and residential properties. Additionally, she advises customers and contractors on remediation strategies and conducts pre- and post-remediation evaluations.

Prior to joining Safex, Beth had a one-year internship where she provided industrial hygiene and safety services in offices, laboratories and industrial settings and created a procedure manual for BSL-2 certification.

Beth is the 2020 winner of the American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists’ John J. Bloomfield Award, which is presented annually to a young industrial hygienist who has made significant contributions to the profession by pursuing occupational health hazards, primarily through fieldwork.

Beth serves on the Conference Programming Committee, Social Concerns Committee and ACTIONS (Government Relations and Advocacy) Committee for the American Industrial Hygiene Association and has served as a guest participant on the American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists Board of Directors. Beth earned a Master of Public Health in Industrial Hygiene from the University of Arizona and has a B.S. in Microbiology from Virginia Tech.

Last Call! ACGIH Call for 2024 Presentations

We Need Your Expertise for 2024!

Do you have scientific OEHS knowledge and expertise to help advance the field? ACGIH Academy is currently seeking speakers to present webinars during our 2024 education season. ACGIH webinars are normally 60-90 minutes, focused on a variety of subject matters related to occupational, environmental, health, and safety topics. 

Why Present?

~ Serve as an expert in the field

~ Educate and advocate for serious science

~ Enhance your CV and professional profile

Click here to fill out Interest Form.

2023 Election is Underway! Member Subscribers Be Sure to Vote!

By now, you should have received an email to vote on the 2023 Election Ballot. Instructions are provided and includes your membership login information. You will be asked to vote on three open Board of Directors positions and three members of the 2024 Nominating Committee. The deadline for voting online is November 1, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, so be sure to vote!

The following candidates are on the ballot for

the 2024 Board of Directors:

Frank Hearl, PE
Stephanie Lynch PhD, CSP, COHC
Bruce Miller, MS, CIH
Torey Nalbone, PhD, CIH, FAIHA
Pamela Susi, MSPH, CIH
Edward (Ted) Zellers, PhD

The following candidates are on the ballot for

the 2024 Nominating Committee:

Beth Angus, CIH
Cynthia Cooper, CIH
Seth Ebersviller, PhD, CIH
MaryAnn Hoff, MS, CIH, MPM
Chun Yip Hon, PhD, CIH

If you are experiencing difficulty with your login or need to receive a paper ballot, please contact Rob Keithley at (513) 742-6165 or RKeithley@acgih.org.

If you have not received an email for the election ballot, please contact ACGIH at customerservice@acgih.org.

2023 Award Winner Recognition & Virtual Annual Meeting

Join us on October 18, 2023, from 1:00-2:30 PM Eastern. This informative meeting will highlight a number of ACGIH achievements throughout the year and will include a presentation by ACGIH Board Chair Jack Caravanos, DrPH, CIH.

Leading Experts Appointed Associate Editors for JOEH

Updated Documentation Now Available/Second Comment Period Now Open

Updated Documentation is Now Available

The first half of the TLV Development Process has come to an end. Thank you for your submissions during the first comment period of 2023. Documentation has been updated and now available on our website through Data Hub. PDFs are also available for purchase in ACGIH’s Publications Store.

The updated list of NICs and Adopted substances can be found on our website here.

Second Comment Period Now Open

ACGIH encourages you to further comment for the second half of the year. The second comment period is now open and will run from July 1st – September 30th, with ratification occurring in November, and updates in December.

All comments and/or questions can be submitted to science@acgih.org following the process outlined on the website. Comment period ends September 30, 2023.

ACGIH is proud to be more responsive to the needs of the occupational health field.

Thank You for Visiting Us at AIHce!

What an impressive turnout at AIHce EXP 2023! Lots of visitors to the ACGIH booth! We hope you were more than satisfied with your experience and the huge savings you received on all our publications!

Thank you for your support and hope to see you again next year!