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AIHA Names Henshaw Winner of Smyth Award

The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) has presented the 2006 Henry F. Smyth Jr. Award to John L. Henshaw, CIH, former secretary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The award was presented at the 2006 Professional Conference on Industrial Hygiene (PCIH) held Sept. 16–19 in San Jose, CA by AIHA’s Academy of Industrial Hygiene.

“It is an honor to present this award to Mr. Henshaw on behalf of the Academy,” said Daniel E. Agopsowicz, CIH, Academy president. “His dedication to promoting the industrial hygiene profession
through his vision and achievements has earned great respect from his peers.”

As recipient of the award, Henshaw delivered the Henry F. Smyth Jr. Memorial Lecture at PCIH. His remarks were entitled “Historical Review–Employer Responsibility.”

“Society and laws have tried to hold the employer accountable for workplace health and safety for centuries, but still we have disease, death, and injury from working,” said Henshaw. “This is unacceptable, and I see a wide variety of opportunities for our profession to bring this message
home by looking beyond our traditional roles. I look forward to discussing my thoughts with PCIH attendees and challenging our profession in reaching greater results in workplace health and safety.”

Henshaw, who is president of Henshaw and Associates Inc., has had a long and distinguished career in industrial hygiene. He received his bachelor’s degree in biology from the Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, followed by a master’s degree in public health (industrial
hygiene /environmental health administration) from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Named by President George W. Bush as assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in 2001, Henshaw was confirmed by the Senate on August 2001
and served until December 2004.

Henry F. Smyth Jr. was a dedicated teacher and researcher who recognized the need for sharing ideas and communicating his achievements with his students and his peers through publications and presentations. Smyth became involved in projects that enhanced the profession, and he
provided necessary leadership to ensure the success of those projects.

British Health and Safety Exec: Get a Life

The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) in the United Kingdom is urging people to focus on real risks — those that cause real harm and suffering — and to stop concentrating on trivial risks, launching a set of key principles and practical actions it believes sensible risk management
should, and should not, be about.

The principles can be found at www.hse.gov.uk/risk.

Launching the principles at a children’s sailing centre in north London, Bill Callaghan, Chair of the HSC, said: “I’m sick and tired of hearing that ‘health and safety’ is stopping people from doing
worthwhile and enjoyable things when at the same time others are suffering real harm and even death as a result of mismanagement at work.

“Some of the ‘health and safety’ stories are just myths. There are also some instances where health and safety is used as an excuse to justify unpopular decisions such as closing facilities. But behind
many of the stories, there is at least a grain of truth — someone really has made a stupid decision.

We’re determined to tackle all three. My message is that if you’re using health and safety to stop everyday activities — get a life and let others get on with theirs.”

Lending support to the principles, author and adventurer Ben Fogle said, “Children encounter risk everyday and it’s important that through activities they learn how to enjoy themselves but also stay
safe. I probably take more risks than most — and I wouldn’t want my life to be any other way. No one wants a world where children, in fact anyone, are wrapped in cotton wool, prevented from taking any
risks and scared of endeavor. That’s why I’m supporting HSE’s launch and am happy to endorse these principles.”

Sensible risk management IS about:
* Ensuring that workers and the public are properly protected;
* Providing overall benefit to society by balancing benefits and risks, with a focus on reducing real risks - both those which arise more often and those with serious consequences;
* Enabling innovation and learning, not stifling them;
* Ensuring that those who create risks manage them responsibly and understand that failure to manage real risks responsibly is likely to lead to robust action; and
* Enabling individuals to understand that as well as the right to protection, they also have to exercise responsibility.
Sensible risk management IS NOT about:
* Creating a totally risk free society;
* Generating useless paperwork mountains;
* Scaring people by exaggerating or publicizing trivial risks;
* Stopping important recreational and learning activities for individuals where the risks are managed; and
* Reducing protection of people from risks that cause real harm and suffering.

Commenting on the principles Jonathan Rees, HSE Deputy Chief Executive, said:
“We want to cut red tape and make a real difference in people’s lives. These principles
build on all of this and will hopefully drum home the message that health and safety is not about long forms, back-covering, or stifling initiative. It’s about recognizing real risks, tackling them in a balanced way and watching out for each other. It’s about keeping people safe - not stopping their lives.”

ASSE’s Goldman Begins Term as Head of Training Association

The American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) Manager of Education and Program Development, Trudy Goldman, ARM, begins her term this month as president of the International Association for
Continuing Education and Training (IACET). She has been an IACET board member since 2000.

Goldman has a broad management background with concentration in the areas of association management and health care risk management. She previously served as risk manager for the University of Illinois at Chicago and as executive director of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM). She received an Associate in Risk Management (ARM) designation
from the Insurance Institute of America.

A past-president of the Healthcare Risk Management Society of Metropolitan Chicago, Goldman was awarded the designation of Fellow from ASHRM.

Goldman received her B.S. in Sociology and Psychology from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Created by a national task force in 1968, IACET is a non-profit association dedicated to quality continuing education and training programs. The association’s training criteria is recognized worldwide as the universal standard for continuing education.

IACET’s mission is to promote and enhance quality in continuing education and training through research, education and standard setting. IACET certification is the standard learners seek for quality continuing education and training and its criteria and guidelines are the core of thousands of educational programs worldwide.

ASSE is an authorized provider of continuing education, approved by IACET.

The authorized provider status recognizes that ASSE can award Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to attendees for training completed at ASSE seminars, workshops and symposia at the national, regional and chapter levels. Upcoming ASSE professional development events from Goldman’s
department include the Nov. 16-17 Solutions in Safety Through Technology Symposium in Scottsdale, AZ and the January 21-27, 2007 SeminarFest in Las Vegas featuring 45 seminars.

NSF Grants $12M to Study Nanotech’s Health & Safety Impact

The National Science Foundation has extended funding for Rice University’s Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology with a five-year renewal worth $12 million.The renewal ensures
CBEN programs will continue through 2011. CBEN was the first academic research center in the world dedicated to studying the interaction between nanomaterials and living organisms and ecosystems.

It was founded with a five-year grant in 2001 and was eligible for a onetime five-year extension.

“In its first five years, CBEN helped produce groundbreaking research in nanomedicine, nanobiotechnology, nanotoxicology and nanoscale methods for environmental remediation,” said CBEN Director Vicki Colvin, professor of chemistry. “CBEN has played an active role in informing the public, lawmakers and industry about potential unintended environmental consequences of nanotechnology. With this new funding, we are looking forward to making even more significant strides.”

Colvin stressed that CBEN’s success has extended well beyond the laboratory.

“Our educational programs for K-12 science teachers and their students have exposed thousands of young people to the exciting frontiers of nanoscale science,” she said. “In addition, we have helped encourage companies to move nanotechnology from the laboratory to the marketplace through a varied set of collaborations with diverse groups like the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and the International Council on Nanotechnology (ICON).”

CBEN was among the first six Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers (NSECs) funded by NSF following the creation of the National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2000. NSF currently funds 16 NSECs.

“In 2000, nanotechnology research was focused on uncovering new phenomena, and the question was, ‘When would we have applications in various fields?’” said Mihail C. Roco, NSF’s senior adviser
for nanotechnology. “Then, CBEN was created as the first center on health and environmental implications funded by NSF under NNI.

The creation of the center has symbolic meaning. From the challenge of building the first nanostructures, we have moved into research on societal hopes and concerns, and this in
the first year of the national initiative.

Now, after five years, the center not only has become a reference resource at the national and international levels, but it also defines the field itself, and how science, engineering and society
converge.”

CBEN’s research focus is on the so-called “wet-dry” interface between biology and materials science. For example, the machinery of life inside every living cell exists in a water based environment. Nanomaterials, on the other hand, are often either insoluble or unable to function efficiently in
solution. CBEN’s research aims to understand how nanomaterials function in water-based environments such as living organisms and ecosystems.

The International Council on Nanotechnology (ICON), a multi-stakeholder initiative that grew out of
CBEN-led activities, is addressing the potential environmental and health risks of nanotechnology.

ICON last year unveiled a nanomaterial-specific Environmental, Health and Safety Database as a free public service.

EPA Releases New Guide on Mechanics’ Exposure to Asbestos

The Environmental Protection Agency is updating its guidance to protect the health of auto mechanics with the release of a draft brochure entitled, “Current Best Practices for Preventing Asbestos Exposure
Among Brake and Clutch Repair Workers.”

The brochure contains information for both automotive professionals and home mechanics. EPA is providing the public 60 days to comment on the brochure.

The brochure includes work practices that may be used to avoid asbestos exposure. It also summarizes existing Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulatory requirements for professional automotive mechanics. When finalized, the brochure will supersede the existing Guidance for Preventing Asbestos Disease Among Auto Mechanics, known as the “Gold Book.”

Asbestos is the common name given to a number of naturally occurring mineral fibers that have been used in manufactured goods due to their high tensile strength, resistance to heat, and chemical stability.

Because of these properties, asbestos fibers have been used in a number of products, including automobile clutch and brake parts.

Exposure to asbestos is potentially harmful to human health if microscopic asbestos fibers, released into the air when asbestos is disturbed or in poor condition, are inhaled into the lungs. Asbestos exposure has been associated with a number of serious health problems and diseases, including asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma.

OSHA Accepting Comments on HazCom, Global Harmonization

OSHA has announced that it will publish an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, seeking public comment on the implementation of the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling
of Chemicals (GHS).

The notice appeared in the Federal Register on Sept. 12, 2006. Adoption of the GHS by OSHA will require OSHA to propose changes to the Agency’s Hazard Communication Standard (HCS).
The GHS is a system for standardizing and harmonizing the classification and labeling of chemicals by providing a comprehensive approach to defining the health and physical hazards of chemicals, creating classification processes, and communicating hazard information through uniform labels and safety data sheets.

“GHS is expected to bring more consistency and clarity, both from a national and international perspective, to hazardous chemical regulations in the workplace,” said OSHA Administrator Edwin G. Foulke, Jr. “The diverse and sometimes conflicting national and international requirements can
create confusion among employers who seek to use hazard information to effectively protect their employees. One of the many benefits of adopting GHS is that it would provide a consistent format for labels and safety data sheets, making the information easier to comprehend and access when making hazard assessments.”

To help those who are not familiar with the approach in the GHS, OSHA has prepared a guidance document that summarizes the GHS requirements.

The GHS has been adopted by the United Nations with a goal of broad international adoption of the GHS by 2008. The adoption of the GHS will facilitate international trade by increasing the consistency
between the laws in different countries that currently require different information be provided to employers and employees about chemicals during their production, transportation, use, and disposal based on jurisdiction.

Written comments (in triplicate) must be submitted not later than Nov. 13, 2006, to the OSHA Docket Office, Docket No. H-022K, Room N2625, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. Electronic comments may be submitted to: http://ecomments.osha.gov/.