Smart sensors. Convergence of technology. Internet-enabled devices. Analytics and informatics. Wired connectivity. Predictive monitoring. These words were not on the tip of industrial hygienists’ tongues even ten years ago.
But this past July, the American Industrial Hygiene Association invited 16 experts to the Sensor Technology Summit. In the September issue of the AIHA’s The Synergist, association President Steven Lacey, PhD, CIH, CSP, wrote in his editorial that advances in sensor technology have the “potential to fundamentally alter the way we do our work.” He echoed words NIOSH Director Dr. John Howard wrote in a NIOSH blog earlier this year: “The future of direct-reading devices and smartphone applications may help to revolutionize the practice of industrial hygiene and safety applications.”