Kris Cramer serves as co-chair and contributing author for paper on improving exposure assessment

Kris Cramer, a senior industrial hygienist in ERG’s Environmental and Occupational Health Group, recently served as a co-chair and contributing author for the American Industrial Hygiene Association’s (AIHA’s) Grand Challenges paper, Improving Exposure Assessment. 

AIHA is the world’s premier organization for occupational and environmental health and safety (OEHS) professionals, providing them with valuable resources and knowledge to protect the health and safety of workers and communities. Each Grand Challenges paper tackles ambitious, but achievable, goals for meeting global needs related to worker health and safety.  

Kris co-led the collaborative development of the publication and helped shape its strategic direction. The paper examines some of the key challenges OEHS professionals face when interpreting and applying exposure data across chemical, physical, and biological hazards, such as the challenges of adapting to new technologies and methodologies and changing regulatory requirements. It also identifies critical priorities for advancing exposure science and risk-based decision-making (both with and without monitoring data), including leveraging cutting-edge real-time detection technology and dermal exposure methodologies. 

Exposure assessments measure how contaminant exposure affects both environmental and human health. OEHS professionals like industrial hygienists use this exposure data to make decisions about how to best protect workers from exposures and hazards. 

“Exposure assessment is fundamental to protecting worker health,” said Kris. “This work highlights where the OEHS profession has made significant progress and where there are still opportunities to improve evaluation of exposure information. By advancing these practices, OEHS professionals can make better decisions that ultimately strengthen worker protection.” 

Learn more about ERG’s environmental and occupational health services.