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About PSAHS
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Susen Trail is an Industrial Hygienist who founded Practical Safety and Health Solutions, LLC, located in Appleton, WI, in 2015. She works with general industry and construction businesses to create a safe and OSHA compliant work environment.
Susen chose to start her company name with Practical because any solution too complex or expensive would not get implemented.
Her journey began as an OSHA Consultant in Colorado. Later, she accepted a job at the Department of Commerce enforcing OSHA standards and the State of Wisconsin codes in public sector workplaces. During this time she conducted Worker’s Compensation Accident investigations for the Department of Workforce Development. After a few years as an Interim Chemical Hygiene Officer, she opened her own consulting business.
Ms. Trail became a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) by the American Board of Industrial Hygienists in 1998. This certification is required by OSHA for employee exposure assessments used to abate a violation.
Susen put herself through college with scholarships, one loan, and a variety of jobs including work on a chicken farm, as a veterinary assistant, in autorepair, on the manufacturing floor, and selling specialty knives door to door in Detroit, MI.
Her degrees include an AS in Molecular Biology, a BS in Zoology from Michigan State University and an MS in Industrial Health from the University of Michigan. She’s been a Director on the board for the Wisconsin Section American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) and has served on the National AIHA Technical Initiatives Strategy Advisory Group investigating technological tools for industrial hygiene/occupational and environmental health and safety applications.
Qualifications
- Masters of Science, Industrial Health, 1997
- OSHA On-Site Consultation Program Industrial Hygiene Consultant 1997 – 1999
- Certified by the American Board of Industrial Hygienists since 1998, CIH: 8540 CP
- State of Wisconsin Public Sector Wisconsin code and OSHA standard enforcement 1999 – 2013
- Director – Wisconsin Section American Industrial Hygiene Association Board 2014 – 2017
- American Industrial Hygiene Association Technology Initiatives Strategic Advisory Group 2019 – present
While running Practical Safety and Health Solutions, LLC Susen has worked in many areas including but not limited to:
- Personnel (e.g. management, technical, operations and maintenance) involved with process safety
- EH&S process design, operations and maintenance from the chemical and processing industries including bulk and finished pharmaceuticals, chemicals, cosmetics, food, plastic and rubber, metals, textiles, wood and paper and agrochemicals
- Food product manufacturing
- City Government
- Schools, Technical colleges and universities
- Construction
- County governments
- EMTs
- Fire Departments
- Forestry
- Foundry
- Furniture manufacturer
- Garages, large and small vehicles
- Health care clinics and hospitals, nursing homes
- Highway departments
- Jails and prisons
- Landfills
- Leather works
- Manufacturing
- Packaging
- Paper management
- Parks
- Police, sheriffs
- Swimming pools
- Printing
- Public works
- Recycling
- Sawmills
- Streets
- Towns
- Trucking
- Utilities
- Villages
- Waste water treatment
- Window and door manufacturers
- Wood product manufacturers
- Zoo
What is a certified industrial hygienist?
The American Board of Industrial Hygienists (ABIH) is a trademarked certification process that requires the applicant to complete at least 180 academic hours. The focus of the hours include ethics, toxicology, physics, biostatistics, biochemistry, epidemiology, air and noise sampling techniques, engineering, work practice, and administrative control selection, and least 4 years of professional level comprehensive Industrial Hygiene practice.
When you have completed the certification process, then you are eligible to send in the necessary documentation, with the cost of $150 to have it reviewed. Once you are accepted you will study a minimum of 36 hours a week, pay $350. The exam is given in which is an additional 8 hour drive there the applicants take an 8-hour exam. This exam has a pass rate that exceeds 50% only 3 times since 2003.
Once you pass you then have to maintain your certification through continuing education, every 5 years including at least one course in ethics.
why hire a certified industrial hygienist?
Once OSHA determines that a violation has occurred involving an employee being over exposed to noise or air contaminants, OSHA then requires that the employer verify that the exposure has been controlled. This happens by hiring a Certified Industrial Hygienist to conduct testing and provide a written report that documents the current exposure levels for employees.
OSHA requires this because:
- The certification and maintenance process ensures the highest quality sampling and documentation available.
- Certification guarantees that you are committed practice ethically and to remain certified you repeat this commitment.
Many businesses have found it more efficient and economical to start with a Certified Industrial Hygienist for both the quality of their work and to access their wide range of knowledge regarding employee exposure and controls. It is more productive to identify and correct hazards before employees can become potentially harmed.