September 2022 – President’s Message

Greetings from the New Jersey Local Section of the AIHA! I am your new NJ AIHA President for 2022 to 2023, it is an honor to volunteer for and support such a great community of EHS professionals!

This year NJ AIHA is hosting the first all day in person Northeast Industrial Hygiene Conference, since 2019. We have a great team of Conference Committee members that are already assembling a fantastic program of speakers and topics. Mark your calendars, this Conference will be Friday December 2, at the Marriott Princeton Forrestal, 100 College Road East, Princeton, NJ.

We had our first in person meeting in June since 2019, at a new venue at the Stage House Tavern, 1099 Route 22 in Mountainside, NJ, where Alejandro Ruiz Executive Director of EHS at Rutgers, gave a wonderful speech about all the safety and industrial challenges and surprises he and his staff tackle at NJ’s largest University. It was also Scholarship night, where NJ AIHA gave out scholarships to promising new high school and college students of Industrial Hygiene and related fields of study.

In addition, many students registered for the IH Virtual Summer Review course that has 14 sessions given by some of our best local professors and EHS professionals. They ran weekly from June 7 to August 30, and the sessions are recorded for access anytime until the end of 2022. Please view the topics and instructors – It is a great value at $150, and you can still register for access to the recordings at the following link: http://www.njaiha.org/events/njaiha-summer-review-course/

NJ AIHA runs on the expertise and exceptional work by Volunteers. NJ AIHA is seeking Nominees for Volunteers for President Elect 2023-2024. You can also claim CIH CM points by serving on a local AIHA Section Executive Committee.

Finally, in addition to the in-person December full day conference this year, we plan on having less virtual Speaker meetings, and more in person Dinner Meetings, with 2 speakers per meeting, as we did before 2020, from September 2022 to June 2023. We of course follow all NJ State and CDC Covid Guidelines and Protocol. It is an exciting time to attend these meetings and speeches. We have some openings for potential Speakers if you have an interesting topic or story to tell related to industrial hygiene or workplace health and safety. If you are interested in volunteering for the Executive Committee positions or wish to give a speech at a NJ AIHA Meeting next season, please contact me at the email below.

Thank You and Hope You Had a Great Summer!
Marc Vargas CIH MPH
President, NJ AIHA