Lansing, MI, January 16, 2009 – A 10-member panel of occupational and environmental health and safety professionals has completed an evaluation of the scope of the industrial hygiene profession in preparation for the Fall 2009 Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) examination.

The evaluation, which identified the domains, tasks, knowledge, and skills essential to the performance of a CIH, was commissioned by the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH).

ABIH appointed the 10 professionals to the Job Analysis (JA) Panel in 2008, and then worked closely with the psychometric and testing services company CASTLE Worldwide, Inc., to conduct the evaluation.

The recommendations of the panel were then reviewed by a representative sample of professionals in the practice of industrial hygiene to validate the findings.

The JA panel represented a variety of practice settings, geographic regions, educational levels, and years of experience. Panelists included:

• Carter Ficklen, CIH, of Mainthia Technologies/NASA, Virginia
• Shannon Gaffney, PhD, CIH, of Chem Risk, Inc., California
• Cynthia Hanko, CIH, of Intel Corporation, New Mexico
• Michael Larranaga, PhD, PE, CIH, CSP, of Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma
• Rainbow Leung, CIH, of SRI International, California
• Perry Logan, CIH, of 3M, Minnesota
• Mike Rosenow, CIH, of Argonne National Lab, Illinois
• Shamini Samuel, CIH, of Golder Associates, Calgary, Canada
• Eduardo Shaw, CIH, of Authority of the Panama Canal, Panama (currently), and Exxon Mobil Corporation, Texas (through September 2008)  
• Steve Skolnik, CIH, of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, Illinois

 “ABIH owes a debt of gratitude to these dedicated professionals who have taken on this important responsibility in addition to their regular jobs.” said ABIH Executive Director Lynn O’Donnell, CIH. “Their work has helped create the blueprint for the CIH exam offered beginning in October 2009.”

 For more information about ABIH and the CIH exam, visit www.abih.org.