Industrial Hygienist
As early as elementary school, he wanted to discover how the world worked and make discoveries toward cleaner air and water.
GW was raised in New Jersey, the second of 5 children. His father was an electrical and mechanical engineer. His mother earned her college degree in math and physics.
EARLY INTEREST IN SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES
As early as elementary school, GW was fascinated by stories of scientists like Newton, Einstein, and Mendel, who wanted to understand how the world works so they made observations and created experiments dealing with gravity (Newton), how movement of certain things were – or were not – related (Einstein) and genetics (Mendel). GW wanted to make similar discoveries!
The first celebration of “Earth Day” (annually on April 22) to increase national awareness of environmental issues like climate change, air and water pollution and recycling, made a strong impression on GW. He decided he wanted to make the world better by understanding how to create cleaner air to breathe and water to drink.
When GW was in high school and later in college, no courses specifically addressed environmental issues, so he prepared himself to be a scientist by studying chemistry, biology and physics in high school and choosing a college with a well-regarded program in chemistry, to which he added a course in geology, with the goal of establishing his basic scientific knowledge to eventually apply to environmental issues.
Upon college graduation, most of GW’s fellow graduates accepted well-paying jobs with large chemical companies. While the financial compensation would have been an attractive job feature, RP had no interest in being the captive of a chemical company. Instead, he opted to seek employment with a business involved in environmental engineering issues so he could understand some of the potential career opportunities which could be of interest before he headed to graduate school to deepen his knowledge of environmental issues.
FIRST JOB DOES NOT NEED TO LOCK IN A CAREER; COULD SERVE AS AN INTERNSHIP
GW’s first job was in “research and development” (often referred to as “R & D”) for the manufacture of products for environmental applications, which provided GW with helpful experience involving problems in air and water pollution. He remained with this employment for about one year, which essentially served as an internship in the field of environmental science.
SCIENCE CAREER LIKELY REQUIRES EDUCATION BEYOND COLLEGE
The next step in GW’s desire to continue his relevant, science-based education, was to enroll in a Master’s degree program for environmental chemistry and biology. Part of his research assignments involved water pollution and working at an organic foods farm. Upon graduation, GW considered the conventional options of pursuing employment within either of two career paths A: chemist or B: biologist. But these choices seemed to be too narrowly focused to meet GW’s broader interest in applying his knowledge to understand and solve environmental issues which often have more than one cause. So, what to do? GW considered his long-range goals and created a third option, C: environmental scientist, a path then not routinely available.
“INTERESTING” JOB MAY NOT PROVIDE STABILITY
To pursue his science-based passion, GW initially worked for several agencies of the federal government (National Park Service and National Forest Service) involved in outdoor conservation projects. While these jobs were interesting, they were seasonal and often required relocating to different conservation areas across the country. Combined with only modest financial compensation, the federal conservation projects did not meet GW’s personal needs for job stability now that he was married. He therefore found employment with a small environmental consulting firm which provided involvement in a wide variety of environmental projects.
As with all the major career decisions from this point on, an important part of the decision-making process was its impact on his wife and children: that he would have time to spend with them and that they would all be financially secure.
HARD WORK EARNS POSITIVE ATTENTION AND REWARDS
Due to GW’s hard work and intelligent application of his science focused education, one day his manager suggested strongly that GW train to be a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH), which would likely provide many career opportunities since the world was a long way – if ever – from solving problems like air and water pollution. This employer uniquely involved an outside psychologist to meet with and assess each new employee’s professional strengths, to assign them to the most appropriate projects; taking such personal interest in each employee’s job satisfaction inspired employment loyalty. GW remained with that firm for 6 years, which was one of the shortest tenures among many long-term employees. As the only CIH there, GW departed to join a business which employed several CIHs, where GW could apply his technical craft (evaluating the potential for people to be exposed to hazardous biological and chemical substances and recommend remediation) while managing other industrial hygienists doing similar work.
NETWORKING IMPORTANT FOR MANY REASONS
While utilizing his education and experience to study and remediate his clients’ environmental issues, GW joined the national and local organizations of industrial hygienists. Eventually he chaired one of several sub-committees. Participation in such professional groups serves several purposes: continue your education and get to know more fellow professionals, which provides the following potential advantages:
* additional sources of client referrals
* attract the attention of job recruiters for further advancement
* build your resume of professional qualifications in the event you are hired to serve as an expert witness in litigation
ADVANTAGE OF BEING RECRUITED
GW remained in his second employment as a C.I.H. for 10 years, departing after being recruited to a company offering greater responsibilities and financial stability. However, the new employment offer was conditioned upon GW moving his family to a location with significant pollution to be studied, which turned out to be a location with negative personal attraction (congested and well known for industrial pollution), incompatible with the literal atmosphere he wished to provide for himself and his growing family. Instead, knowing that the corporation was recruiting him rather than him trying to sell himself to the corporation, he offered to accept their job offer with one condition: that he could work exclusively at home. With reluctance, the corporation agreed.
Ironically, the corporation eventually realized that it could significantly reduce its offices’ overhead expense by permitting others, when appropriate, to work at home, since the nature of the work was such that, it could be analyzed in a home as well as in an office.
ASSESSING A BUSINESS RISK
After five years with this employer, GW realized he preferred working with environmental issue clients who sought his services rather than with many of the clients assigned by his employer. Some of the assigned clients wanted to push for results which GW could not endorse on a scientific basis. To do so would undermine any scientist’s credibility. So GW began to consider starting his own business, reviewed the risks with his wife and together they accepted the challenge: if there is a reasonable basis to do so, bet on yourself to succeed!
EXPERT WITNESS OPPORTUNITIES
Following a minimum of several years (usually 10 or more) of practical experience, an industrial hygienist may be requested to serve as an expert witness in litigation regarding air or water quality – for example: diseases related to exposure to asbestos or chemicals such as benzene and pesticides. Ultimately a court will decide whether the IH has sufficient experience to qualify as an “expert” who is entitled to offer an opinion regarding causation, rather than limiting testimony to facts, like all other witnesses.
Due to GW’s well-earned reputation as a CIH (having studied benzene exposure at a benzene production facility and asbestos exposure at many projects), GW has been frequently retained as an expert witness.
BEWARE CONFLICTS BETWEEN BUSINESS AND SCIENCE
A person is not an accurate and credible scientist without strict adherence to scientific principles. While analyzing new situations, the scientist must consider all possibilities, including facts observed and relevant studies by others. Only then should conclusions be drawn, and recommendations made. In essence, the facts lead to the conclusions.
In contrast, a business may start with its conclusion (for example, increased sales of product X leads to business profitability) and then develop a strategy to achieve its goal (for example, providing a discount for a bulk purchase of product X.)
To achieve profitability, a business may wish to minimize its costs of production by cramming many workers into small spaces with inadequate ventilation. Management may wish to hire an industrial hygienist (IH) to approve of the air quality within its production facility. The IH would review the air quality and often recommend improving ventilation. Irresponsible business management may not wish to spend money to upgrade its ventilation but instead, offer to pay a large fee to the IH to approve of current conditions. A responsible IH would never proceed where the science does not support the conclusion.
Fortunately, such an example of a potential conflict between business and science is rare. But scientists such as industrial hygienists need to develop the knowledge and experience to reach the proper conclusions and then have the courage – and diplomacy – to choose science over profitability if such a situation should arise. As an example, GW was retained to study air quality and potential remediation at a famous museum. Upon review of all the relevant facts, GW advised the museum that he could not endorse the limited upgrades they were willing to provide so he withdrew from any further involvement in the museum’s project, which meant he could not earn the balance of promised compensation but also meant that he had preserved his professional integrity.
