Awards and Presentations

The Occupational Safety and Health Association known as “(OSHAssociation)” is an independent, non-profit organization promoting “ZERO Accident and Injury” at workplaces and ensuring a safer and healthier working environment in the USA and beyond. This year's winner is Bernard L. Fontaine, Jr., M.Sc., CIH, CSP, FAIHA. The winner was selected based on 25 consecutive years of no lost-time incidents or restricted work activity. Our firm provides sustainable safety operational excellence involves developing a robust, functional safety system analytic and predictive models, which can help reduce/or eliminate injuries in the workplace or working environment. The award will be presented at the OSHAssociationUSA conference in Houston, TX on July 15, 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. Fontaine was nominated and voted as the 2015 President-Elect of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (NJAIHA). This position collaborates with the Executive Board on membership goals and initiatives and strives to enhance knowledge regarding current industrial hygiene issues affecting business and industry, regional and national legislation, standards development, and the knowledge of principles and practice to help practitiones do there job better. The membership within NJAIHA has grown of the years to cross-functional capacity for safety professionals, human factors and ergonomics, toxicologists, epidemiologists, medical and healthcare.  

 

Mr. Fontaine also have been named and voted as a member of the Board of Directors to the US Chapter of Workplace Health Without Borders (WHWB). WHWB is an international charity devoted to providing occupational health assistance to universities, governments, institutions, labor groups, organizations, and other stakeholders in undeveloped countries. Many workers in different occupations lack the knowledge and understanding of health hazards which affect themselves as well as their families, public in the local villages and communities where they live, and the environment. According to the World Health Organization, almost 2/3 of the world’s 3 billion workers are employed in unhealthy and unsafe working conditions.

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In 2019, Mr. Fontaine presented two papers relative to railroad workers potentially exposed to chemical substances by inhalation, ingestion, and skin absorption. The type of potential exposure include gases, vapors, dusts, fumes and mists.  Cancer is the most significant health effect, which can result in serious illness and death depending a variety of confounding factors. What is interesting is the potential for additive or synergistic effects of some chemicals based on the selection and continued use of engineering controls, administrative controls (including work practices), respirators and personal protective clothing. Training and education of railroaders on these occupational health hazards is also very important.

 

The other presentation discussed the causation for the acute respiratory illness on-board an international cargo vessel. A worker complained of a variety of symptoms including shortness of breath that became progressively worse. Physicians believed the illness may be related to acute reactive airway disease. Based on the evidence, our team conducted testing to evaluate the cause of the purported occupational illness. The vessel travels to the globe carrying cargo in inter-model containers. These basic exposure concerns for railroad worker health were presented to the membership at Potomac American Industrial Hygiene Professional Development Seminar (PDS) in Rockville, MD.