December 2001
October 2001 Board Report |
During the October 6-7, 2001 meeting, the following major issues were discussed, finalized and/or voted on by the Directors.
The founding premise of the ABIH was to provide an independent, voluntary certification process aimed at helping to assure the protection of workers and the community at large. To assist in staying true to that premise, the ABIH convened our Strategic Planning Committee to update our strategic direction and ensure that our vision is consistent with the needs of the industrial hygiene community and the ever changing world. That committee, composed of the executive committee, executive director and the standing committee chairs, met in New Orleans in June to begin a new phase in strategic planning.
A revised Strategic Plan was approved by the full Board on October 7, 2001 at the Fall meeting. The Board is currently still finalizing the Goals and subsequent objectives and we will share those with you in a later issue. However, we wanted to share with you as soon as possible the updated Vision and Mission statements as well as a new component, our Values.
| Vision: | To improve the occupational and environmental health of workers and the public. |
| Mission: | To develop, administer and promote the highest quality occupational and environmental health certification systems. |
| Values: | The American Board of Industrial Hygiene will, in all we do:
Enhance the Well Being of People |
To some, perhaps the most striking feature of this Strategic Plan are the words "occupational and environmental health." Hopefully the discussion that follows will help most to understand the rationale for this change in terminology. We can call ourselves whatever we want, but this profession applies the principles of personal exposure assessment to the process of risk assessment and management, whether on behalf of workers in a workplace, occupants of a residence, visitors to an office building, consumers of a product or children in a school. If we are to guard our heritage and claim our proper place in the future, we must recognize that this heritage has many applications outside of "classic" IH. It is the Board’s belief that the refinement in wording in the Vision and Mission statements helps to strengthen this fact. Additionally, it is also intended to project our commitment to establishing partnerships and alliances where appropriate that will enhance the value of the industrial hygiene profession.
While we know that we must constantly look around us for changes that will affect our future, we must also look to our past for guidance on how to meet tomorrow’s challenges. The past for IHs is a rich tradition that set us apart from all other environmental professions. The most distinguishing feature of that past, and one that continues to distinguish us from all other environmental specialties, is our ability to assess personal exposures and, based on that, define and manage health risks. That personal exposures can be far different from area or average concentrations in an ambient environmental media has been a central tenet of IH for nearly 50 years and has been known since the pioneering work of Patterson (1939)1. as advanced by Oldham and Roach (1952)2. Along the way we have dealt with ergonomic risks, consumer product safety, indoor and outdoor air pollution, lead in water, asbestos in schools and a myriad of other issues that some may say are not "classic" IH. However, all of these efforts utilized our unique ability to assess personal exposures.
Now other specialties have adopted our approaches. The EPA recognizes the importance of indoor air quality compared to outdoor as a result of adaptation of IH methods to assessing community air pollution.
Virtually every aspect of risk assessment (and particularly the exposure assessment that is a part of it) is now driven by the principle that individuals’ risks are as much a function of their habits as the concentrations in the media to which they are exposed. These are the roots of industrial hygiene and we must continue to work diligently to improve the application of these and claim them as our own.
As a last point, it needs to be stated that the process of reflection through strategic planning is now a part of all Board actions. We recognize that in today’s rapidly changing world those who operate without road maps are hopelessly lost. In addition, as the Industrial Hygiene landscape changes we realize that our road map needs to be updated, not every three years but on an on-going basis.
Thus the strategic planning process is never finished and your comments are valuable to us now and in the future.
1 Patterson, H. S.: Bull. Insn. Min. Metall., No. 417 (1939).
2 Oldham, P. D. and S. A. Roach: A Sampling Procedure for Measuring Industrial Dust Exposure. Brit. J. Ind. Med. 9:112 (1952).
A policy was finalized at the October meeting. It states that "The ABIH must communicate its proposed and final decisions so that stakeholders have adequate input to ABIH processes and have the necessary knowledge to attain and maintain certifications in a timely and cost efficient manner. The Board believes that continuous feedback from and interaction with those we are affecting will improve the quality of our products. The ABIH has established the following broad goals in order to execute this policy. It will:
Included in the policy is a description of the process for assessing the impact of a proposed action and, if there is the potential for significant impact, how best to communicate with the effected audiences. The text of the full policy can be found on the ABIH website.
The Board voted to award six months of experience credit for CIH applicants with an IH bachelors degree from an ABET accredited program. The decision was based, in part, on Diplomate feedback on the article that appeared in the June 2001 ABIH News. CIH applicants with an industrial hygiene Masters degree from an ABET accredited program will continue to receive one year of experience credit towards the required five years.
The following schools have ABET accredited (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) undergraduate IH programs:
The following CIHs did not successfully complete the Certification Maintenance process.
The Board voted that their certifications have expired.
Richard W. Allen – 6338 CP Raja H. Atallah – 6511 C Edward C. Benson – 6345 CP Caty L.G. Burt – 6580 CP Ricky J. Carr – 3874 CP Wallace Carr – 4010 CP Finis L. Cavender – 3875 T Karen H. Cook – 6361 CP Erinn E. Durham – 6564 CP William R. Durham – 6565 CP Debbie L. Eckel – 6566 CP Karen M. Flannery – 3894 CP Terry W. Hall – 4049 CP Richard W. Hartle – 2228 CP Timothy C. Hower – 6409 CP | Stephen P. Illes – 2383 CP Thurman R. Johns – 6597 CP Charles L. Keenan – 3913 CP Charles L. Keil – 2244 CP Susan M. Klymkowsky – 6605 CP John W. Koehn – 6419 C Ann G. Krupp – 3892 CP Shawn R. Kruse – 6610 CP Michael L. Marshall – 6626 CP Joseph E. Martin – 2260 CP Lawrence S. McDermott – 6630 CP Catherine F. McLaren – 3929 CP Raymond T. McVay – 3931 CP Teresa C. Metcalf – 4104 C | Herbert P. Michael – 4105 CP Mike A. Moreman – 6635 CP Gary H. Mosher – 2422 CP Michael J. Ravera – 6466 CP Gerald R. Ripley – 6467 CP Leo J. Ruschena – 2447 CP Amita N. Sanghvi – 2283 C Cheryl Marie Savill – 6667 CP Warren J. Smith – 2465 CP Brian P. Stahl – 6679 CP Aileen C. Teng – 2297 CP Katherine D. Walker – 4161 CP Mark S. Wilson – 2473 CP John W. Yan – 6710 CP |
ABIH Liaison Activities |
At their October 7th PCIH Council meeting, the Academy voted to petition the AIHA Board to designate that CAIH members in good standing be recognized as individuals who meet the requirements of board certification in their respective discipline and thus belong to the Diplomate membership category of AIHA. This designation makes the CAIHs eligible for membership in the Academy under the AIHA Bylaws, Article XIII, Section 1. For information on the Certified Associate Industrial Hygienist, you can go to the "CAIH Frequently Asked Questions" document at www.abih.org. 2002 Council meetings are scheduled for January 20-21 at AIHA’s headquarters in Fairfax, June 2 at the AIHCE in San Diego and September 29 at the PCIH in Cincinnati.
Due to the events of September 11, the September 14-15 Council meeting was canceled. Significant issues were covered by conference call on October 1st. The Board voted to go forward with a validation project for the Occupational Health & Safety Technologist (OHST) certification program. CCHEST’s next meeting will be March 15-16, 2002 at BCSP’s headquarters in Savoy, IL. In addition to ABIH Director Dave Gioiello, CIH, CSP who sits on CCHEST’s Board, ABIH Chair Ana Prieto, JD, CIH will attend the long term planning portion of the meeting.
ABIH submitted its accreditation application for the CAIH program in July. It has been circulated to the CESB Accreditation and Admission’s Committee and will come before the full Board for a vote at the CESB annual meeting in February 2002.
The JIHEEC is planning for a dinner workshop Wednesday evening, June 5th at the AIHCE in San Diego. Look for more information in the AIHCE Advance Program.
"Lost" CIHsThe following individuals are due to report for certification maintenance by February 1, 2002, but we have been unable to locate them. We have listed last known employer and state.
If you know where these CIHs are, please write, call, fax or e-mail us with their current locations. |
The next Board and Committee meetings will be held April 13-14, 2002 in the Denver area. Anyone with issues that need to be addressed by the Board should contact the Executive Director, Lynn C. O’Donnell, CIH at (517) 321-2638 or by e-mail.
2001 Certification Statistics |
Through November 30, 2001 there were:
| 6400 | CIHs in Active Status | |
| 6082 | Comprehensive Practice | |
| 264 | Chemical Practice | |
| 123 | Other Aspects (Acoustics, Air Pollution, Engineering, Radiation and Toxicology) | |
| * | Some Diplomates are certified in more than one aspect | |
| 465 | IHITs | |
| 12 | CAIHs | |
| 75 | Diplomates holding Indoor Environmental Quality Sub-Specialty certificates | |
| 1995-2000 | |
|---|---|
| Certificates Due for Renewal | 1233 |
| Retired, Deceased or Previously Lapsed | 260 |
| Worksheets Due - February 1, 2001 | 973 |
| Certificates Renewed | 930 |
| Certificates Not Renewed - October 7, 2001 | 43 |
| 1996-2001 | |
| Certificates Due for Renewal | 1197 |
IOHA Certification CommitteeAs reported in the December 2000 issue of ABIH News, the International Occupational Hygiene Association set up a Certification Committee to evaluate Occupational/Industrial Hygiene certification programs against IOHA developed program criteria. Their model certification program is patterned after recognized third party accrediting standards. On October 1st, ABIH became the first certification program to submit an application for IOHA recognition of our CIH and CAIH process. We will keep you updated on our progress in achieving this recognition. |
EH&S Certification Needs |
The March 2001 issue of the Academy’s Diplomate which appears in the Synergist and the ABIH website carried a survey which asked about the potential and need for a comprehensive certification scheme covering the larger area of practice which includes the environment, industrial hygiene and safety. Since there are existing accredited certification boards in these disciplines, ABIH, the Board of Certified Safety Professional (BCSP) and the Institute for Professional Environmental Practice (IPEP) have been considering whether some type of joint venture would be advantageous.
Four hundred thirty three individuals responded to the survey with a wide variety of opinions and comments. Some believe there is a convergence in the EHS field and certification should follow suit. Others do not want to see a dilution of what they view as distinct, valuable credentials. As evidenced by the diversity in the written survey comments, there is no one option that stands out as being the obvious choice.
Each of the three Boards has appointed a representative to continue exploring the development of EHS certification options. Recommendations from this group to the three Boards will be reported to you in a future issue of ABIH News. The representatives are as follows:
| ABIH: | Daniel E. Agopsowicz, CIH |
|---|---|
| BCSP: | Jan Simon Clark, CSP, CIH |
| IPEP: | Ralph Froehlich, QEP, CIH |
ABIH Member-at-Large Nominations |
In the fall of 2000, six new ABIH Directors were elected. For the first time, two of the six were nominated via the Member-at-Large self nomination process. The Board will go through an election cycle again next fall and will be seeking CIHs who are interested in serving as Directors.
While service as a board member is a challenging and rewarding volunteer assignment, it also carries important legal and fiduciary responsibilities requiring a commitment of time, skill and resources. ABIH is a working Board. Directors are asked to attend a minimum of two meetings per year, each about two days in length and to participate in committee work. There are currently four standing committees: Executive, Qualifications, Examination and Certification Maintenance. During the year, other board business is conducted via telephone, email and mail. Expenses related to board travel are covered by ABIH.
The Board consists of 19 Directors - one Public Member and eighteen CIHs. The CIH term of office is 6 years. Every two years the terms of six Directors expire and six CIHs are elected by the Board to fill the vacancies. As part of this process, ACGIH submits four nominees, two of whom will be elected and AIHA does the same. The remaining nominees will come from CIHs who submit a Nomination Packet to ABIH. Two from this group of nominees will also be elected at the Cincinnati PCIH Board Meeting September 28-29, 2002. The six newly elected Directors will take office at the Spring 2003 Board meeting.
The Member-at-Large self nomination package is available from the Lansing office as well as the ABIH website under Forms and Publications/Prospective Director Nomination Packet. The deadline for submission is July1, 2002. For those who may want time to think about placing their name in nomination for a Director’s position, we’ll repeat this article in the next issue of ABIH News.
Web Roster |
You can now update your address, phone number, fax number and e-mail address on the ABIH web site. From the ABIH Home Page (www.abih.org), click on "Diplomate Services," then log in. This requires your last name and your ABIH I.D. number, which is NOT the same as your certification number. Your ABIH I.D. number is printed on your dues notice (under the bar code) and also on your dues receipt.
When you have logged in, you will see the "Diplomate Services Menu." (You may also return to the menu from a page you are viewing using the link at the bottom of other Diplomate Services pages.) The "Update Your Contact Information" choice brings up a form for entering changes. Please also note that there is a button beneath the last box to indicate whether or not you want to be listed as a consultant. If you check "yes," your address, phone number and e-mail address will appear in both the "Public Roster" and the "Diplomate Roster." If you are not listed as a consultant, your contact information appears only in the "Diplomate Roster."
The roster, of course, contains only those CIHs, CAIHs, and IHITs who are in good dues standing.
Once you have entered your changes and clicked on "Submit Update to ABIH," the changes will NOT appear in the online roster immediately. The changes are imported into our database in the office and the online roster is updated from that database. This is done about once a week, so expect it to be a couple of days before you see the changes. (Note: If your mailing address is in the U.S.A., please leave the "country" field blank. You only need to list a country if you are outside the U.S.)
There are several other issues to be considered with the online roster. Currently, the addresses of only those people listed as consultants’ are included in the roster version that is available to the general public. Contact information for consultants was made available to the general public first because it is believed that most would prefer that it be easy for potential clients to find them. It would be possible to allow non-consultants to choose to have their contact information available and for consultants to have their contact information made unavailable. Please send us any thoughts you might have about the roster for our consideration as we continue to look for ways to make it more useful to you. Your feedback is always welcome – let us know what you think about this system and what you would like to see us offer through the web and other means. We may make modifications to the rosters and other services based on your feedback.
Question-Writing Workshops |
Several groups have hosted question-writing workshops this fall to help generate questions for the ABIH certification exams. The sessions were held in Houston, Little Rock, and at Cal State - Northridge in the northern Los Angeles area. The sessions were very successful, generating quite a few good questions for potential use on future ABIH exams.
ABIH question-writing workshops are one-day events. They can be held on either a weekday or on a weekend. The Board offers one CM Point for the day (plus food). We also pay travel expenses. But more importantly, it offers CIHs a chance to help keep the ABIH certification exams current and relevant. It is an opportunity to help identify what aspects of industrial hygiene practice are important enough to include on the CIH exam and the new CAIH exam.
The workshops themselves are usually interesting exercises. It is also a chance to interact with your colleagues in a little different environment than a typical work setting or professional meeting. People can work individually, in pairs, or small groups of three or four.
If you are interested in having a question-writing workshop in your area, we are more than happy to come to where you are and put a session together. What we need are a few volunteers who can make it on a specified day, and we can take care of the rest. For more information, please contact Lyle Edinger, CIH at 517-321-2638, ext. 21 or by e-mail.
2002 PCIHThe Academy is already planning for next year’s Professional Conference on Industrial Hygiene in conveniently located Cincinnati. PDCs will be held over the weekend of September 28-29, followed by two days of general sessions, current topic workshops and exhibits. An AIHA sponsored Risk Assessment Symposium will immediately precede the PCIH Thursday through Saturday, September 26-28. |
Exam Fees Covered Under G.I. Bill |
ABIH has received approval so that examination fees will now be reimbursed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for those eligible under the Montgomery G.I. Bill (MGIB), Veterans Education Assistance Program (VEAP) and Dependents Educational Assistance (DEA). This benefit became available for tests taken on or after March 1, 2001. For more information go to www.gibill.va.gov and use the link to the Licensing and Certification page.
Not CertifiedIn response to inquiries, the American Board of Industrial Hygiene reports that the following individuals have never been certified by the Board and are not authorized to use the designation Certified Industrial Hygienist/CIH or Certified Associate Industrial Hygienist/CAIH.
|
2001 Exam Results |
Based on the outcome of the 2001 examinations, the American Board of Industrial Hygiene announces the names of the new certificate holders.
| Certified Industrial Hygienist Comprehensive Practice (148) | ||
|---|---|---|
Maria-Lisa Abundo Michael W. Adams Michael Lamma Adams Farid AL Atrach Ronald C. Anderson John J. Armstrong Jennifer M. Bailey Scott G. Barber Curtis Kent Barnhardt Robert W. Bement Matthew L. Berkheiser Mark R. Betz Michael J. Black Elisabeth Marriet Black Amy B. Boas Ralph E. Bonnell Paul J. Brochu, Lt. David E. Burcin Michele L. Byrum Charles William Calmbacher, PhD Joseph N. Capuzzi Gary B. Carlin Steven M. Caulfield James David Charlesworth Suiman C. Chiu Karin Kim Cochran Scott D. Cohen John S. Cowen Jenny E. Crittell Kenneth Michael Crombie Kevin W. Culp Jeffrey Joseph Dalhoff Sampa Das David Russell Deal Michael J. Dempsey, Jr. James P. Drake Kevin Holden Dunn Beau H. Ellis Vira Em Christopher A. Enyeart Lynda M. Ewers, PhD Michael Allen Finnamore Jo A. Forchione Robert L. Ford Deborah Beth Friedman James Noel Friedman Declan Friel Christopher J. Giordano Daryl Jean B. Goebel Robert Joseph Goodman | Robert J. Grosso Douglas A. Hancock Glenn C.D. Hanley Brian Roy Hann John Michael Harris Jeffrey P. Heaps David J. Hill John Robert Hobbs Maria Tomasko Holmes Samuel C. Ingram, Jr. Anthony J. Intrepido Douglas E. Irving Lori Kotzer Jennis Alan E. Jessen, DVM Jeffrey Keith Johnson Nicole Kristine Keller William M. Kerns, Jr. Darren J. Kunkelmann Marvin R. Lewiton Michael J. Liberty Perry W. Logan Don W. MacFadgen Heather Lynn McArthur Kermit McCarthy David A. McCracken William D. McKee Heather L. Meeds Mark M. Methner, PhD Tommey H. Meyers Sally Kathryn Miller Christopher Anthony Montgomery Patrick Thomas Moore Ataollah Nayebzadeh, PhD Frederick W. Neske, IV Douglas G. Niemtschk Troy T. Ochs Juri Oja Paul S. Olafson Leo Talmage Old Philip Bernard O'Neill Jason D. Parker Richard Scott Parmelee Graham A. Parr Terry L. Parsons Pruthvish Patel Daniel A. Penaloza, II Wantanee Phanprasit, PhD Penelope E. Pietrowski Marc J. Plisko | John Patrick Porter James Randall Price Edward Joseph Primeau Kenneth Joseph Quinlan Michael G. Ratelle Theodore P. Rogers Kiley R. Ross Brent Gregory Sharrer Kevin C. Siersdale Premenauth Singh Russel L. Sinor Mark Everett Smallwood, Maj. Geoffrey E. Smith Kerry J. Smith Scott Joseph Soucy Elizabeth A. Spitzer Patra Sriwattanatamma, PhD Tekla A. Staley Courtney V. Stanion Matthew Alan Stein Wayne Kiyoshi Taketa Jon R. Taylor John E. Trela Keith Robert Trombley Stella Man-Chun Tsai Michael V. VanDyke Aaron Boyd Wagner Peter F. Waldron Timothy Walker Ronald G. Wallace, PhD Paige Davis Walling Steven G. Walton Gary M. Weiby Matthew Marvin White John Thomas Whitesides John K. Whitmer David Allen Wilson Michael P. Wisherop Daniel E. Wolf Christine Teta Wolter Stephen C. Woods Daniel T. Woody Elizabeth C. Yellstrom Stephen J. Yellstrom Chungsik Yoon, PhD Emma Louise York Deborah Elspeth Young Christopher O. Younghans-Haug Anthony Edward Zepeda |
| 2nd Certification Achievement | ||
Certified in both the Chemical Practice and the Comprehensive Practice. Gordon T. Yamamoto | ||
| Certified Associate Industrial Hygienist (12) | ||
John Charles Banta Brent A. Cooley Daniel Charles Coyle Tami Froelich | James J. Jenkins Christopher Kase Matthew C. Kozak Susan K. Nelson | Thomas P. Pritchett Lisa Lynn Quiggle Christian Y. Shin Allen Lee Wood |
This was posted on December 29, 2001.