Dr. Geltman awarded grant to establish training center in emerging technologies and industrial hygiene

CUNY SPH faculty Dr. Elizabeth Glass Geltman will serve as the PI of the grant entitled “Atlantic Emerging Technologies and Industrial Hygiene Training Center.”The Center will be established as collaborative, multi-institutional endeavor, consisting of CUNY SPH, the Rutgers School of Public Health Office of Public Health Practice, and the School of Environmental Affairs at Universidad Metropolitana (UMET) in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The collaboration is important because it allows expansion and development of Superfund research and education in EPA and OSHA Region 2, areas with an extremely high density of Superfund and Brownfields sites.

The new Center provides graduate level academic training in emerging technologies at CUNY SPH and UMET. The Center will also offer a series of online, multi-lingual continuing education courses for industrial hygienists, environmental consultants, and those working in the field as live 1.5 hour broadcasts from New York, New Jersey, and Puerto Rico for 100 participants per course. The continuing education program will produce high-quality videos on emerging technology that will be posted on the Internet available for viewing for free at any time. The goal is to prepare a diverse workforce to address public health and environmental perils arising from and associated with new and emerging technologies. Specific topics of focus will include: 1) soil vapor intrusion and remediation, 2) radon, 3) PCBs and 4) green chemistry. The funding amount awarded was $400,000.