Michael Larrañaga Named New Editor-In-Chief for the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene

12/13/2022

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (Dec. 13, 2022)—AIHA and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) have announced Michael Larrañaga, PhD, PE, CIH, CSP, FAIHA as the new editor-in-chief for the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene (JOEH). Larrañaga, an internationally recognized expert in industrial hygiene and occupational and environmental health and safety, is the Founding Principal and President of R.E.M. Risk Consultants (R.E.M.), a safety, health, and risk management consulting firm. He replaces T. Renee Anthony, PhD, CIH, CSP, FAIHA who served as editor-in-chief of the JOEH from 2018 to 2022.

“I am excited to become the editor-in-chief of JOEH, and I hope to leverage the outstanding editorial review board to encourage a broader audience, seek submissions of high-quality international articles, and work with allied professions to secure a mix of practical and research submissions that expand the journal’s reach,” said Larrañaga. He added, “My goal is to facilitate efficient and thorough peer reviews that continue to make JOEH the first-choice journal for high-quality research in the field of occupational and environmental health.”

“Michael’s vast experience, his awards and honors, his contributions to the profession of occupational and environmental health and safety, and his enthusiasm make him the perfect leader for JOEH,” said Lawrence D. Sloan, AIHA’s CEO.

“We are very excited to have Michael join the team at JOEH. His outlook and experience give him a balanced perspective to serve as a driver for the future of the industrial hygiene profession,” noted Phillip Rauscher, Interim Executive Director of ACGIH.

An appointed member of the Scientific/Technical Advisory Committee of the World Trade Center Health Program, Larrañaga also serves as a representative of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society on the Technical Advisory Group ISO/TC 159, which develops international standards in ergonomics. He previously served on the NIOSH Board of Scientific Counselors, the joint NIOSH Cumulative Exposure Risk Group, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Opioid Working Group, and DHS First Responders Group. Larrañaga has held academic faculty positions at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State University, and Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia. He is co-creator and founding Scholar for Innovation and Creativity in the Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the United States Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. In 2022, Larrañaga was awarded the inaugural AIHA Fellows Special Interest Group Mid-Career Award for his contributions to the profession of industrial hygiene.

Published jointly by AIHA and ACGIH, JOEH is a peer-reviewed publication devoted to enhancing the knowledge and practice of occupational and environmental health and safety. Since 2004, JOEH has published peer-reviewed research studies that examine exposures, risks, and controls that can be used to understand how exposures relate to health outcomes, and how these can be managed for the betterment of society. JOEH publishes studies across a range of investigation types, including laboratory investigations, field studies, simulations, and secondary data analyses. Stressors relating to adverse health outcomes are the main focus of JOEH, including chemical, biological, radiation, noise, ergonomics, and psychosocial hazards, including how work-life organization affects these exposures.

About AIHA

AIHA is the association for scientists and professionals committed to preserving and ensuring occupational and environmental health and safety in the workplace and community. Founded in 1939, we support our members with our expertise, networks, comprehensive education programs, and other products and services that help them maintain the highest professional and competency standards. More than half of AIHA’s nearly 8,500 members are Certified Industrial Hygienists, and many hold other professional designations. AIHA serves as a resource for those employed across the public and private sectors as well as to the communities in which they work. For more information, please visit www.aiha.org.

About ACGIH

Since 1938, ACGIH has been respected for its dedication to the industrial hygiene and occupational and environmental health and safety (OEHS) communities. ACGIH facilitates an interchange of scientific experiences among OEHS experts to collect and make accessible data to support threshold limit values (TLVs) for chemical substances and physical agents, biological exposure indices (BEIs), practical applications for industrial ventilation operations and design, as well as bioaerosols agents. For more information, please visit acgih.org.