April 2025 – Dinner Meeting
April 2025 Dinner Meeting
Past Presidents’ Night
Agenda:
5:00 p.m. Networking/Cash Bar
5:30 p.m. Before Dinner Session:
Topic: Health and Safety in the Cannabis Industry As we are aware, marijuana/cannabis legislation continues to shift toward legalization as more states implement decriminalization, medical-use or full legalized use with recreational sales. Historically, the marijuana industry was not even a thought for most safety professionals, as it was generally illegal in most uses. As this industry booms, growth, sales and employee count have begun to, and are set to continue climbing. With this in mind, employee safety must be considered for this industry, but there are some challenges.The first part of the presentation, we will go over the basics of the cannabis industry such as but not limited to the following:- Current status of legalization in the United States and regulations
- Workforce
- Processes
The other half of the session will examine the potential and known health and safety hazards of working in the cannabis industry. We will do a deep dive into safety risks for specific job descriptions and facilities, as well as industrial hygiene hazards. The session will present case studies and examine current research into the challenges and solutions for safety risks. We will conclude the session by discussing our experience and solutions and posing questions to the audience for interactive discussion. Questions posed to the audience include:
- Based upon the presentation, what other hazards may be present in this industry?
- How do we, as safety professionals, guide this industry and influence it in its early stages for more positive outcomes on employee health and safety?
- What control solutions would you recommend for certain discussed scenarios?
6:30 p.m. $45 – Buffet Dinner
7:15 p.m. After Dinner Session:
Topic: Drinking Water Exposome: USGS-Community Partnership Studies The quality/sustainability of drinking water are growing challenges in the United States due to increasing water demands and contamination of drinking water resources. Challenges include a lack of access to quality drinking water and limited information on drinking-water quality, especially for those on private wells, small community water supplies, and bottled water. Current understanding of the role of drinking-water contaminant-mixture exposures in human-health outcomes is incomplete, in part, because comprehensive multi-contaminant investigations are not commonly conducted at the point of consumption (tapwater) for public-supply, private-wells, or bottled water. Recent events and technological advances argue for substantially reduced distance between water-quality and human health monitoring endpoints, individual exposure effects monitoring, and a substantially increased scope of water-borne-contaminant analyses. Such recent events have included lead and per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water, chemical spills in drinking-water resources, and septic (pharmaceuticals) or geogenic (arsenic) contamination of private wells. All have alarmed the public, shutdown municipal water systems, and prompted shifts in drinking-water consumption (e.g., increased bottled water use). Tonight, we will discuss USGS drinking water quality research with an emphasis on assessing human exposures to and potential effects of contaminant mixtures including PFAS in tapwater. Speaker: Kelly Smalling Kelly Smalling is a Research Hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, New Jersey Water Science Center. She is Co-lead, of the USGS Environmental Health Program, Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Integrated Science Team. Kelly’s research is focused on the exposures to and potential health implications of contaminant mixtures to humans and the environment (including fish and wildlife). Kelly has a BS in Chemistry and Biology from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and a master’s in public health from the University of South Carolina. She has been working at the USGS for the last 20 years.Preregistration is appreciated so we can give an accurate headcount to the venue. Walk-ins are also welcome. You may register using the below form, or via email to Ronnie Tutty at njaiha@ptd.net.