This will be the first time ever that the city of San Antonio, Texas hosts the 2014 American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition (AIHce) + Stewardship – and San Antonio says it’s ready for the 5,000+ industrial hygiene and occupational and environmental health and safety (OEHS) professionals expected to descend upon the city May 31^st through June 5^th.

“San Antonio will provide a festive backdrop for this year’s conference as our organization celebrates its 75th anniversary and looks ahead to another successful 75 years,” said Barbara J. Dawson, CIH, CSP, president of the American Industrial Hygiene Association® (AIHA). Dawson’s group and the American Council of Government Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) co-sponsor the conference.

“We look forward to welcoming their group to our great city at the end of this month,” said Casandra Matej, executive director of the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Sunny, hot and humid

While AIHce may be new to the city, conventions are not. Matej said the meeting business is extremely important to the local economy, and that AIHce along is expected to generate $7 million. The Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center – site of the conference – boasts 1.3 million square feet of space.

For those who’ll be packing their suitcases soon, San Antonio’s weather forecast for the convention period has temperatures ranging from 85 to 94, with mostly sunny, humid conditions.

At this year’s AIHCE + Stewardship, attendees will learn about trends, best practices and concerns in the OEHS industry. 

Highlights include:

Monday, June 2, from 8-9:30 a.m. – Peter Leyden, founder and CEO of Reinventors Network, will discuss the digital revolution and what business owners and professionals need to know in order to stay ahead of the curve.

Tuesday, June 3, from 8-9:00 a.m. – John Howard, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, will address the 75th anniversary of AIHA and the future opportunities and challenges on the horizon for the industrial hygiene profession.

Wednesday, June 4, from 8-9:00 a.m. – Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, will discuss the eeconomic, political and technical dynamics behind global workplace challenges in Bangladesh and elsewhere, along with potential solutions and promising new models for worker protection.

Lots of experts, lots of topics

AIHce 2014 + Stewardship will feature more than 125 technical sessions covering more than 40 topic areas – from aerosols to toxicology, and from emerging issues to safety. These topics will be covered in a variety of formats, including general educational sessions, lectures and poster sessions. Stewardship 2014, being held concurrently with AIHce as a conference within a conference, will bring together prominent experts and practitioners involved in minimizing the health, safety, environmental, and social impacts of products and packaging.

 In addition to the educational programming, AIHce 2014 + Stewardship will feature more than 200 exhibitors and sponsors, promoting the latest OEHS products, services and technologies to help attendees protect the health and safety of workers. A special exhibit by AIHA’s Clandestine Laboratory Working Group will display a mock drug lab that focuses on hazards associated with the production of methamphetamine and indoor marijuana group operations.

 AIHce + Stewardship offers a variety of registration options. If attendees are not able to attend the full conference, they can pick a day take advantage of the AIHce one-day registration option (see http://aihce2014.org for session information).