AIHA | Protecting Worker Health www.aiha.org
MAY 2018
CONTENTS
CONTRIBUTORS​
KAY BECHTOLD, FEATURE AUTHOR
Kay Bechtold is senior editor of
The Synergist
.
MONICA NETHERLY,
FEATURE AUTHOR
Monica Netherly, MPH, ASP, is an industrial hygienist with the Navy Bureau of Medicine, Directorate of Public Health, in San Diego, Calif.  
LAURALYNN TAYLOR MCKERNAN, FEATURE AUTHOR
Lauralynn Taylor Mckernan, ScD, CIH, is the associate director for science of the Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations and Field Studies, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/NIOSH.
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The Synergist's mission is to provide AIHA members with news and information about the occupational and environmental health and safety fields and the industrial hygiene profession. The Synergist focuses on industry trends and news, government and regulatory activities, key issues facing the profession, appropriate technical information and news on association events and activities.
The Synergist's objective is to present information that is newsworthy and of general interest in industrial hygiene. Opinions, claims, conclusions, and positions expressed in this publication are the authors' or persons' quoted and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, AIHA, or The Synergist.​


IN HAMILTON’S FOOTSTEPS
THE EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE
Since Alice Hamilton’s time, many women have discovered a passion for preventing occupational illnesses. Who are the women working to ensure that today’s workplaces are healthy and safe?
The Synergist
spoke with several of them to illustrate the range of experiences and perspectives of female industrial hygienists.
BY KAY BECHTOLD
»
A POWER MISSION IN PUERTO RICO
BRINGING AID AND ELECTRICITY AFTER HURRICANE MARIA
Last September, Hurricane Maria disabled Puerto Rico’s electrical grid, leaving 95 percent of the 3.4 million inhabitants without power. To this day, Puerto Rico is still reeling from the storm's impact.
BY MONICA NETHERLY
»
THE “BANDITS” SPEAK
NIOSH CONSIDERS FEEDBACK FROM USERS OF ITS PROPOSED OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE BANDING PROCESS
NIOSH has proposed a process for occupational exposure banding, which assigns chemicals to specific categories that correspond to a range of exposure concentrations. Feedback from early adopters, also known as “bandits,” has played a significant role in refining the agency’s process.    
BY LAURALYNN TAYLOR MCKERNAN AND T.J. LENTZ
»
A DUST-UP IN CONSTRUCTION
AIR MONITORING FOR RESPIRABLE CRYSTALLINE SILICA
Sponsored by Lion Technology Inc.
While the construction industry looks to mitigate exposure by designing-out or controlling dust, there are still a number of tasks where exposure to respirable crystalline silica is likely to exceed permissible exposure limits.

BY STEVE OCHS
»
In Hamilton's Footsteps
The Experiences of Women in Industrial Hygiene