This year’s Northwest Occupational Health Conference (NOHC), sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Section of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (PNS-AIHA), brought together over 120 health and safety professionals at the Skamania Lodge in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge.
This year’s conference included sessions, exhibits, and events aimed at equipping conference attendees with tools and insights to navigate the evolving challenges facing today’s occupational health and safety professionals. Conference benefits included accreditation and CEU credits for attending the general sessions and the preconference short course.
A big challenge was choosing which sessions to attend from an impressive and packed agenda. The topics covered various work industries in the Pacific Northwest, including those impacting firefighters, cannabis, aerospace, transit, pharmaceutical, fishing, marginalized, and resettled workers and populations as examples. This year’s conference offered the opportunity to learn from expert speakers from government, academia and industry – all working together to design interactive workshops and provide hands-on experiences directly applicable to the workplace today. In addition, some of the issues discussed included exposures to metal cookware, lead in eyeliner, and illicit drugs.
The preconference short course offered on Wednesday was co-sponsored by the Northwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety (NWCOHS) and was attended by over 85 professionals. Wednesday began with a session on Advancing Worker Protection through Public Policy, by the 2024 UW DEOHS Breysse Lecturer, Maggie Leland. https://deohs.washington.edu/breysse-lecture.
This year’s short course on Wednesday focused on two highly relevant themes: Artificial Intelligence and Occupational Reproductive Health. Morning short course sessions shared a wealth of information on the use of AI in the workplace including best practices, challenges, and impact on leadership. Afternoon workshops on reproductive health hazards were very informative and integrated using AI with AI experts in the room to provide information on risks, patterns, and to analyze data.
The conference opened on Thursday with a historical presentation on Touring Europe's Workplaces by Gabe Grunnik, he is from well-known tour guide Rick Steves’. Exploring the beautiful cities and sites with Gabe inspired many of us to check out Rick Steves’ travel site.
Further conference sessions on Thursday covered big data, modeling, statistics, causation, continuous improvement, risks, and best practices related to occupational health and safety. These sessions provided valuable learning and resources to apply in their workplaces.
Check out this year’s NWCOHS Professional Training Opportunities Program (PTOP) awardees who covered a diverse set of occupational health and safety issues.
Friday closed with a panel discussion wrapping up conference highlights moderated by Molly Breysse Cox, UW OSHCE Faculty. This was an interactive session between panelists and audience, here is a quote from an attendee on their experience, “This conference did a great job of addressing professional challenges and providing us with best practices for making change back in our workplace”. Below are the panelists (see photo):
- Dina Siegel, Past President of AIHA board of directors
- Marissa Baker, DEOHS Assistant Teaching Professor, University of Washington
- Karen Michael, L&I, Compliance Manager
- Rylan Signalness, Montana Tech, Occupational Safety and Health program
It cannot go without saying that the in-person social events highlighted the positive energy and change that comes from building new and strengthening old relationships.
Thank you to this year conference chair:
- Josh Hopp, CIH, CSP President-Elect, PNS AIHA Sr. EHS Manager, Cepheid
Thank you to the conference committee:
- Erin Walker, MS NOHC Planning Officer (1st Year) Sr. EHS Professional, Siemens
- Katy Nelson, MS, ASHM NOHC Planning Officer (2nd Year) Health & Safety Specialist, Insight Global Stephanie Carter, PhD, CIH, Industrial Hygienist, iWorkwise
- Kat Gersersen, MPH, CIH, Consultant, UW OSHCE Instructor
- Stephanie Carter, NOHC Planning Committee
- Nancy Simcox, MS, Associate Teaching Professor, UW DEOHS.
Many thanks to the exhibits and sponsors who bring this conference to life!
