LJB’s Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) practice leader, Kirk Phillips, has been named chairman of the Total Worker Exposure Task Force, sponsored by the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA).
According to AIHA, Total Worker Health (TWH) is a formal strategy launched by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), with a premise that protection and promotion of worker health will lead to a healthier, more productive, and more satisfied workforce overall. The role of the task force is to ensure that the industrial hygiene community is supporting and contributing to TWH resources, tools and educational materials.
As chairman of the task force, Phillips will develop and execute the necessary initiatives to accomplish three main goals:
- Establish working relationships with each of NIOSH’s Centers of Excellence for TWH to better ensure that the industrial hygiene community is actively supporting development and dissemination of TWH resources, tools and educational materials.
- Develop a readily accessible set of curated TWH resources.
- Identify gaps specific to industrial hygiene in existing TWH resources to determine how AIHA might best meet those needs.
Organizations have shown a high level of interest on a wide range of initiatives related to TWH, and more than 40 stakeholders volunteered for the task force. Phillips will lead a core group to develop the task force’s road map. His broad and deep understanding of all aspects of safety, health and environmental subjects makes him uniquely qualified for this role. He has 30 years of experience in the comprehensive practice of HSE at LJB and in the U.S. Air Force, where he created Total Exposure Health and led Air Force Bioenvironmental Engineering.