Bassam H. Atieh, Sc.D., M.B.A.
Professional Industrial Hygiene
Experience
My industrial hygiene experience
at Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) varied from supervising pest control
operations to recognizing,
evaluating and controlling problems arising in and from the refinery.
A major part of my work was to
ensure that the employees as well as the community were not exposed
to harmful levels of physical
and chemical agents. I was also responsible for providing workers with
personal protective equipment
when needed. This included hearing protection, eye and face protection,
protective clothing, and respiratory
protective devices. Part of my duties were also to monitor potential
harmful sources such as gas
leaks, noise, vibration and excess heat. Other activities included fire
fighting
training programs, on-site
first aid courses, injury prevention seminars, and creating buddy systems
(team response) in case of
emergencies.
My experience with ventilation systems is
adequate but limited. As work experience, my involvement
with ventilation systems has
been periodic checks and testing air flows, pressures and pressure drops, and
evaluating exhaust
systems. I have been also involved with more specific principles of
ventilation such as
dilution ventilation, fans and
hood design, balancing systems, and air cleaning devices. Most of my work
with ventilation systems has
been mainly in laboratory settings under controlled conditions.
Most of my industrial hygiene exposure and
experience was accomplished during my four years at Tulane
University. My research
dissertation was on the "Deposition of Man-Made Mineral Fibers (Ceramic
Fibers) in the Lungs of Guinea
Pigs". During this time, I was involved
with a wide range of
experiments. A major part
of my research was directly related to industrial hygiene and supporting
fields. The last two
years of my residency at Tulane, the experimentation period, my training
focused on
calibration of instruments,
characterization of the inhalation chamber, measuring and calculating different
dust concentrations, and
aerosol science.
Currently, I am a Professor of Industrial Hygiene
in the Department of Occupational Safety and Health at
Murray State University.
My major assignments are academic; the courses that I teach are industrial
hygiene courses such as: physical
agents, air sampling strategies and analysis, industrial hygiene, and
biostatistics. Other assignments and duties are
departmental, collegiate and university related. Part of my
summers are normally spent
teaching summer courses and consulting. University related industrial
hygiene consultations include
the Chemical Hazard and Consequence Assessment Projects for the
Paducah, Kentucky and the
Portsmouth, Ohio Gaseous Diffusion Plants. As a member of an MSU expert
team, I was the industrial
hygienist responsible for the chemical hazard assessment for the Martin-
Marietta Energy Systems Inc. in
Paducah, Kentucky, 1991 & 1994, and Portsmouth, Ohio, 1995. I, also,
have been consulting local and
regional industry on noise and other industrial hygiene issues since 1991.
Other activities include consultant and editor
for the National Safety Council on academic related issues,
and peer review consultant for
NIH and the United States Public Health Service.
Beside my academic activities I am very interested
in designing and conducting short courses in
occupational health and/or
industrial hygiene for non-academic institutions and businesses. My
primary
interests include: assessment,
management and control of physical agents such as (noise, non-ionizing and
ionizing radiation, heat
stress, and vibration). Other interests are sampling analysis, and
development of
comprehensive industrial
hygiene and safety programs.