Future Environment Designs Training Center's Blog: April 2016

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Environmental Information Association 33rd Annual Conference & Exhibition 2016

This year the American Council for Accredited Certifications (ACAC) held its executive board meeting the weekend the Environmental Information Association's (EIA's) 33rd Annual Conference & Exhibition started. Giving us the opportunity to attend this organization's conference for the first time. We've been a member of EIA since we joined the Professional Abatement Contractors of New York (PACNY). This is another benefit of becoming a member of PACNY The mission statement for the EIA, formerly known as the National Asbestos Council, is "it's multi-disciplinary membership will collect, generate and disseminate information concerning environmental health hazards to occupants of buildings, industrial sites and other facility operations."

The 33rd Annual Conference & Exhibition was held March 6-9, 2016 at the Tropicana Las Vegas Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada. The twitter hashtag for the conference was #EIAPROUD & #EIA2016 and Future Environment Design's twitter hashtag for the conference was #FEDTCEIA. The conference was definitely full of information concerning environmental health hazards between the exhibition hall and the presentations. We definitely were quite impressed with scope of the presentations. The presentations ran in sessions so there were side by side presentations. This was a disadvantage of the conference with so many presentations running at the same time we had to miss a few presentations that coincided with other presentations we wanted to hear. One presentation we missed was Mr. Lee Poye's presentation on "Cumulative Summary of the Variety, Size, and Aspect Ratio of Respirable Elongated Mineral Particles (REMPs) Compiled During Analysis of over 400 Human Lung Tissue Samples". From those who attended the presentation, the data provided information regarding the type and size (0.5 micron and smaller) of REMPs most commonly encountered in human lung tissue effected by asbestos related disease.

Dan Lier's Presentation was Inspiring & Interactive

The presentation by Mr. Dan Lier, "Maximize Your True Potential" was inspiring and had several attendees quoting him throughout the conference. Several presentations we attended provided significant information for our future classes. We attended Mr. Vincent Brennan's & Mr. Chris Walker's presentation on the University of Vermont's confined space program in relation to the new Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA's) confined spaces in construction standard. Major points from this presentation was the importance of rescue services and the importance of practicing rescues in the confined space you may need to make a rescue in. Mr. Guy Sylvester's, of Absolute Resource Associates, presentation was on the "Mold Legislation for New Hampshire" which provided insight into the legislation process of how a mold law can come into being (probably some similarity to how it happened in New York). Mr. Adam Andrew's, of ACAC, presentation on "Certification: Asset or Liability?" provided additional information regarding the levels of certifications and the advantages of being certified. Linda Reinstein's, of Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), asbestos presentation was loaded with information and passion as usual. Peter Delucia & Gregg Mance's, of ACC Contracting, presentation "Asbestos Q&A: Inconsistencies & Ambiguities in the Regulation" had some technical glitches but was well researched and thought out. Ms. Amy Hensley's, of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), presentation "PCBs 101" provided significant information on the history, regulations and handling of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

Grayling Industries during Vendor Introductions

The exhibition hall was where box lunches were eaten and the vendor introduction on Tuesday night with the happy hour was informative, too. Graylings Industries, Aramsco, & Fiberlock were some of the exhibitors we typically see at the PACNY conference, along with EMSL & RJ Lee Group. Two interesting exhibitors were InspectManager a mobile inspection system and Mycometer, a rapid microbiology - on-site technology. Both exhibitors were very interesting and had presentations on their products. The Mycometer information we've added to both our New York State Mold Assessment & Remediation classes. Overall we were quite impressed with the presentations and the information we gathered from this event. The EIA's next event is there Fall Technical Seminar being held on October 14, 2016 at Rosen Shingle Creek, Orlando, Florida. We'll be going this year and we hope to see you there!