Future Ready: How emerging technology can Innovate industrial hygiene
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May 20, 2022 - Emerging technology continues to disrupt the EHS industry at a rapid pace subsequently changing the work and tools used by industrial and occupation hygiene (IH/OH) professionals. Learning how technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, smart wearables, and drones can enhance the IH profession is important, as these technologies are building the next generation of IH compliance.
As IH efforts have become a larger part of organizational risk mitigation planning, especially post-pandemic, the impact of swift and accurate data collection plays a crucial role in both worker health and safety, and in compliance. We are always looking for better ways to fundamentally approach and resolve IH issues.
Incorporating innovation technology solutions can allow organizations to anticipate, or predictively see, something going wrong within a facility instead of reacting to a problem as it emerges. For example, utilizing items such as smart glasses or LIDAR scanning in cooperation with IoT sensors can create a digital twin of a work area. This provides a real-time digital timestamp of equipment conditions, energy outputs, safety hazards, etc.
Shareholders and companies are now starting to look at the complete supply chain of their processes. They aren’t just worried about what their own facilities are doing but also what their suppliers are doing. What is their entire impact on the environment? How much greenhouse gases they emitting? How much energy is being used in these processes? What potential hazards are workers exposed too? Organizations want a much more granular and accurate way of tracking these impacts. Having a constant digital twin of a site that can be referenced through the use of innovative technology, allows companies to demonstrate that they're actually in compliance and doing the things that the government, and the public, is expecting them to do.
The IH industry is revolutionizing the way it qualifies and tracks statistics to further enhance EHS initiatives thus leading to stronger environmental, social, and governance (ESG) planning.
Laura Auchterlonie will present this topic during the American Industrial Hygiene Conference & Expo held May 23 to 25 in Nashville. This conference will address important trends and technologies for occupational health and safety (OHS) professionals.
