Recent Events

August Summer Social 
On Thursday, August 18th AIHA Board Members hosted a summer social at Denver Beer Co. in Arvada. The event was a huge success with 22 Rocky Mountain Section members in attendance! It was certainly a welcome change for many who had only attended web socials for the past few years. Cold drinks, appetizers, and catching up with both new and returning IH and safety folks were among the highlights. Thank you everyone who came out! 

Eu Jin Kuramoto (Jenny Song)


Devin Clark


Other New Members (Not Pictured):
David Bradfield
Timothy Hicks
Mallory Neyens
Michelle Roche

Member Spotlight

This quarter we are profiling member Bradley King, PhD, MPH, CIH  who works in Denver, CO, as the senior industrial hygienist in NIOSH’s Western States Division and holds the rank of Captain in the U.S. Public Health Service. He has worked as an industrial hygienist with NIOSH for 23 years, including 14 years in NIOSH’s Health Hazard Evaluation (HHE) program. He served as president of the AIHA Rocky Mountain Section in 2016 and currently serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors for national AIHA.
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Q: How were you introduced to the field of industrial hygiene?
 A: I was first introduced to the field in graduate school when I was pursuing a Master’s degree in Environmental and Occupational Health in 1996. My undergraduate degree is in biology and I wanted to pursue a health-related career and was really interested how environmental exposures impact people’s health. I had fully expected to work more on the environmental side of things in my career but when I started taking classes in occupational health and safety, I became more intrigued about exposures that occur in the occupational environment. I especially enjoyed the arranged visits to worksites that were part of those classes. This eventually prompted me to pursue a two-year industrial hygiene fellowship at NIOSH after the completion of my graduate degree. I was hired on permanently by NIOSH after completion of the fellowship and I’ve enjoyed it ever since!
 
Q: What are your main areas of expertise and what do you spend most of your time doing?
 A: When I was first hired at NIOSH, I was conducting field industrial hygiene investigations at a wide variety of worksites across the country in NIOSH’s HHE program. This gave me a wealth of experience in a number of different industries and constantly kept things new and fresh for me. About 9 years ago, I transferred to NIOSH’s Denver office, assigned to their Oil and Gas Extraction (OGE) sector program which allowed me to gain greater knowledge and experience in a focused industry. In this work I conduct exposure assessments and research projects and develop improved guidance to prevent exposures and health effects for workers in the OGE industry. 
 
Q: What has been the most gratifying aspect of your career?    
 A: Over the years of working at NIOSH, I’ve had the opportunity to work in multiple emergency response activities for the agency, including the 2001 anthrax mailings in Washington DC, the Deepwater Horizon response in the Gulf of Mexico, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and of course COVID-19. These all have been particularly gratifying to feel that I was helping in some small way to respond to these events. However, one response stands out in my mind, and that was the response to 9/11 in New York City. In the weeks after 9/11, NIOSH sent teams to Ground Zero to assist in conducting air sampling for the response workers. Although still fairly new to the agency, I was assigned on one of those teams and spent a couple weeks at the site assisting in sample collection. The experience of being onsite will forever remain in my memory and it was a defining moment to see the importance of protecting the health of workers, particularly first responders. 
 
Q: Give us one piece of advice you would give to new/young/fresh IH professionals?
 A: Network, especially through the local AIHA section! When I was working in NIOSH’s Cincinnati office, there was a huge built-in network of industrial hygienists there. However, when I transferred to Denver, I knew very few other people in the field locally. One of my best decisions was to become active in the AIHA Rocky Mountain Section. That allowed me to expand my connections and grow my professional network as well as provide opportunities for leadership development in ways I couldn’t have otherwise. It’s a great resource to tap into as a young IH professional!