Meet Dan Christensen, CTEH’s New Director of Industrial Hygiene

CTEH recently welcomed Dan Christensen, CIH, CSP, as our new director of industrial hygiene. Dan is a Certified Industrial Hygienist and a Certified Safety Professional with a long and successful track record in the industrial hygiene field. We asked Dan to provide some background on his career and to provide some insights into his industry and his plans at CTEH.

What brought you to CTEH?

CTEH represented a great opportunity to practice industrial hygiene with a diverse clientele and to work with a premier team of hygienists, toxicologists and other excellent practitioners.

What are your specialties or areas of focus? 

My industrial hygiene background has primarily been in the underground and surface mining and petroleum industries. I describe it as having practiced “IH” 200 feet underground and 200 feet above the ocean.  One common thread I continue to encounter across industries is excessive noise exposure resulting in hearing loss.

What should the average person know about industrial hygiene?

At the end of the day, industrial hygiene is about protecting people from certain work environment concerns – or “adverse exposures” as we call them – that could impact their health or quality of life.

What is the ‘hottest topic’ in your field? 

Right now there is a lot of focus on the onshore oil and gas ‘fracking’ activity and potential silica exposures. In addition to silica, fracking also has potential to produce diesel particulate and noise exposures (which are both special interests of mine).