fabolousstylez

Note: A version of this post was originally published in in The Monitor , a technical publication of the American Society of Safety Engineers' Industrial Hygiene Practice Specialty, in August 2015. Healthcare workers have the potential to experience a wide variety of occupational injuries. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Healthcare Safety and Health Topics webpage, OSHA lists the following as potential hazards: blood-borne pathogens (BBP) and other biological hazards, chemical and hazardous drug exposures, waste anesthetic gas exposures, respiratory hazards, ergonomic hazards, laser, hazards, workplace violence, and radioactive and x-ray hazards. Chemicals such as formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, ethylene oxide, peracetic acid, ortho -phthalaldehyde (OPA), and environmental disinfectants are sources of potential hazardous exposure for healthcare workers (OSHA, 2015) . There is insufficient guidance for healthcare safety personnel to evaluate the risks a...

I am particularly proud of this postcard mailer I drew and designed for a industrial hygiene colleague in Hawaii in March 2016: Postcard mailer drawn and designed by the Industrious Hygienist. The artistic styling for the top half of the postcard is borrowed from Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo , one of my favorite animated films of all time. The artistic styling for the bottom half of the postcard is, as usual, borrowed from Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist series.  I'll only be posting one more manga, the traditional (and final!)  Holiday Manga . I'm changing the focus of this blog slightly, and the manga take a significant amount of time that I will be spending on coursework for the doctorate I am hoping to start in March 2017.

Note: A shortened version of this article was posted as a blog by ASSE on the Industrial Hygiene Practice Specialty Member Portal . The original, unedited version is below. There are many different occupational safety and health certifications available to increase your marketability to employers and clients. As part of our efforts to educate and inform our members, the volunteer Advisory Committee of the Industrial Hygiene Practice Specialty is developing a series of articles about some of these certifications. This article focuses on the Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) designation from the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH). In this article, we�ll share some of our study tips, useful free resources on the internet to help with difficult topics, and explain why this certification may benefit your career. Relevant websites are hyperlinked throughout the article. What is a CIH? A CIH is someone who has qualified for and passed the CIH exam administered by ABIH . The CIH...

It's been a couple of months since my last post. My reason? I took a new job! I'm now an Assistant Professor in the Safety and Health Management Program ( Department of Engineering Technologies, Safety, and Construction ) at Central Washington University . At the very end of August, we packed up our meager belongings and Alaskan Malamute and drove up to Ellensburg, WA. This is Central Washington University (CWU): Image credit CWU The campus is gorgeous, with red brick buildings throughout, grassy areas, a canal, several bike paths, and my personal favorite location: a Japanese Garden (video tour on YouTube here ). There is also a Starbucks on the edge of campus, so I can walk over within 10 minutes. Ellensburg is also a spiffy college town - the weekend after we arrived, it was the annual Ellensburg Rodeo for all of Labor Day weekend. This rodeo started in 1923, so it is one of the oldest rodeos. Where we used to live, in Prescott, AZ, they have had a rodeo since 1888 and ro...