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As nanomaterials quickly make their way into many commercial sectors, it’s up to industrial hygienists to ensure this technology moves forward safely and responsibly, Chuck Geraci, PhD, CIH, said during NIOSH’s annual nanotechnology update at AIHce 2014 in San Antonio. Geraci, coordinator of the NIOSH Nanotechnology Research Center, outlined current challenges and changes related to nanotechnology and provided a sneak peek at upcoming work at NIOSH.

Jennifer Nash, executive director of the Regulatory Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School, kicked off Stewardship 2014 by challenging attendees to consider what the phrase "product stewardship" truly means to them, both in theory and in practice.

In an address at AIHce 2014 + Stewardship on June 3, Karen Messing, PhD, recipient of AIHA’s 2014 William P. Yant Award, described the effects of sitting versus standing on men and women who perform various types of work. Messing, who earned her doctorate in biology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and is professor emerita in the department of biological sciences at the University of Quebec at Montreal, challenged the audience to consider whether too much standing could be problematic to worker health.

The health effects of emerging manufacturing technologies and technological innovations in sampling practices will transform the industrial hygiene profession over the next 75 years, said NIOSH Director John Howard, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, in his AIHce 2014 General Session address this morning at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.

Investigative journalist Gabriel Thompson delivered the 14^th annual Upton Sinclair Memorial Lecture at AIHce 2014 today, recounting his experiences working long hours in low-paying, unsafe, and harmful jobs. Drawing on material from his book Working in the Shadows, Thompson discussed the unsafe conditions facing many immigrant workers in the United States—conditions which, in some cases, Thompson knows from firsthand experience as an undercover journalist harvesting lettuce, working in a poultry processing plant, and picking tobacco.

On Wednesday, June 4, Michael (Mike) K. Harris, PhD, CIH, the recipient of the 2014 Donald E. Cummings Award, urged AIHce 2014 attendees to make industrial hygiene better known to the wider public in order to attract millennials to the field.