News and Events

After nearly 10 years of nurturing, supporting and developing the IOM Singapore business, the decision has been made for it to operate independently and under the new identity of Institute of Ergonomics and Hygiene (IEH). This change will take effect from 1st December 2021. The IOM Singapore management team will stay with the business and lead the IEH into the future.

The move benefits both businesses, allowing them to succeed in their own right as each pursues a similar but not identical path. Allowing them to act and develop in different ways to focus on purpose and deliver excellent service to clients and partners. For any questions, please get in touch with your IOM contact or email: [email protected]

No overall link between concussion, length of career and cognitive function in retired male elite rugby players aged 50+

IOM is proud to be sponsoring the Particles and Health conference, a two day event designed for regulators and researchers to:

• Address scientific studies regarding human health effects of PSLTs. The value of human studies over animal studies-when human-exposed populations can be studied adequately- will be emphasized.
• ​Review and discuss definition of PSLT’s proposed at Edinburgh workshop and published in 2020 in the Journal Inhalation Toxicology with attention to both similarities and differences among these substances.
• ​Address translational toxicology challenges, including the appropriateness of rats as models for human lung pathogenesis (particularly lung cancer) in light of lung overload phenomena and species differences.
• ​Serve as a platform to present current scientific information about PSLTs important for regulatory action.
• ​Publication of pertinent conference presentations in the peer reviewed scientific literature will allow the presentations to live beyond the conference and subsequently be reviewed part of regulatory deliberations.
• ​Establish an interdisciplinary setting for industry, academia and regulatory professionals to interact on an important topic. Such interaction can facilitate enhanced understanding of the science and appropriate classification, labelling and setting exposure limits, among others.
• ​Recommend areas for further research regarding the significance of the rat as a model for translation toxicology.
• Review the biokinetics of inhaled nanoparticles and the potential for non-pulmonary effects.

For more information and tickets please visit the Particles and Health website here.

IOM in collaboration with the University of Aberdeen ran a modular MSc course in occupational hygiene. The course started 30 years ago this month with four students. Over the next twelve years we had more than 50 students participate in the course, and hundreds more joined one or more of the taught modules to increase their professional knowledge.

Professor John Cherrie, Principal Scientist at IOM, has co-authored a paper on ‘The Development of a Covid-19 Control Measures Risk Matrix for Occupational Hygiene Protective Measures’.

Dr Karen Galea, Head of Workplace Exposure Science at IOM, has co-authored a paper on the “HBM4EU chromates study – overall results and recommendations for the biomonitoring of occupational exposure to hexavalent chromium.”

The IOM human factors team has secured another prestigious contract to support HSE in their National Core Study (NCS) on Transmission (“PROTECT”).

The project, which will focus on understanding the behavioural factors that impact effective facemask use amongst worker populations and consumers within retail consulting rooms, is another way IOM is helping to inform COVID-19 policy and industry practice. Making our world safer.

Rebecca Canham, Principal Scientist in Human Factors at IOM had this to say “It’s such a great project to be working on.  Retail consulting rooms, such as those used by pharmacists and beauticians, bring consumers and workers together in a small space, often with a need for physical contact so it’s important to understand the things that affect mask wearing behaviours as this becomes more of a consumer choice and no longer a regulatory requirement as government restrictions ease.”

Project work is set to start in September with interviews and surveys with consumers and workers delivering personal health services and hair and beauty treatments within one or more retail consulting rooms.

Join us on the 8th of July as Will Mueller shares insights on how to implement Health Impact Assessment (HIA) methods in environmental and occupational scenarios. His seminar will be of particular interest to those in occupational hygiene and air pollution research. The talk will allow others to capitalise on what went well and learn from some of the challenges, leading to more accurate, informed and impactful research from colleagues. 

The HIA is an important evaluation tool used to judge the potential health effects of a policy, programme or project on a population, particularly on vulnerable or disadvantaged groups and by using it in different settings it can help to facilitate cleaner environments and healthier workplaces.  

Running from 11:00-12:00 there will be a presentation followed by questions.

IOM is proud to announce that Miranda Loh has been invited to speak at the 8th UK & Ireland Occupational and Environmental Exposure Science Meeting 2021 talk about exploring interventions for reducing SARS-CoV-2 in hospital environments. This is particularly relevant to public health researchers as we’ll be sharing a new tool that we have developed.

To attend the event, please register by sending your name, position, institution, email address, Zoom name and, optionally, your professional twitter or other social media account names to [email protected] before 8^th June 2021.

NanoTox 2021 is taking place online from 20^th – 22^nd April 2021.  This conference is aimed at personnel from research and academic institutions as well as from industry, governmental agencies, and other relevant organisations interested in:

• Nanotechnology
• Hazard and risk assessment of nanomaterials and advanced materials, and their governance
• Alternative methods for nanomaterial hazard testing, release and exposure.
• safe(r) by design (SbD) of nanomaterials and advanced materials.

In light of the news that Dr. Rob Aitken will be retiring as CEO, his successor has been named. Nathan Baker, current Managing Director of IOM consulting will be stepping into the role.

Six National Core Studies (NCS) have been funded through the Government Office for Science to respond to the near term strategic, policy and operational needs of the UK in response to Covid-19.

IOM’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Rob Aitken, announced that he would retire at the end of March 2021. Rob has been at IOM for more than forty years, holding a number of scientific and leadership roles. In 2002, he became a member of the Board of Management and was appointed to the position of CEO in November 2016.