Alicia Haley - Industrial Hygiene Intern

What being an industrial hygiene intern has taught her about safety and health, professionalism and her own self 

This article is part of a series highlighting Jefferson Lab’s internship programs. It offers insights into the experience, opportunities, and growth potential that internships provide students.

Before Alicia Haley started as an industrial hygiene intern at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, she wasn't quite sure what industrial hygiene actually was. 

“I didn’t know much about industrial hygiene, but I thought it had enough similarities to public health,” she said.

A public health major at Old Dominion University at the time, Haley sought practical experience in the field she had been studying. She applied for dozens of public health internships but was disappointed by the lack of opportunities available. That's when she expanded her search and discovered that Jefferson Lab offered something a little different: a paid industrial hygiene internship. 

While public health focuses on enhancing the well-being of communities and populations, industrial hygiene involves anticipating, assessing and controlling risks in workplace environments. Jefferson Lab hygienists achieve this by monitoring individuals' exposure to potentially hazardous materials or physical stressors. Much of this is accomplished through exposure assessments, a process in which they analyze factors such as air contaminants, noise, magnetic fields and non-ionizing radiation to determine if anything poses a risk to employees. 

Watching all of this has given Haley a deeper understanding of the industry and the important role hygienists play in maintaining workplace safety. 

“This is an undervalued role because it is very niche. People don’t realize how important industrial hygiene is, but it can prevent so many bad things from happening to you,” she added.

Day-to-Day Tasks 

In her role, Haley’s main responsibility is to review records and exposure monitoring reports. She diligently combs through each record and verifies that it is error-free before it is finalized and logged into the lab’s system.

She also gets to handle special projects that arise, like when she had to redesign hundreds of labels for all the chemicals stored on-site. 

During a routine safety check, the lab realized its chemical labels did not provide workers with sufficient information to easily understand hazards associated with chemical products. Since the chemicals had been acquired at different times, the style of their labels differed. To help establish consistency, Haley had to update each label with a uniform layout. She says the task was important for ensuring that every chemical in the lab is easily identifiable, a quality that prevents dire mistakes.

“It was tedious, but it was important,” she said about the task. “If you know anything about chemistry, you know that mistaking one chemical for another can lead to something bad.”

She appreciates doing assignments like these, but her favorite part of the job is when she gets to leave her desk and shadow hygienists and technicians in the field. 

“The majority of my work is the labeling and data entry, so when they take me out and make me do the hands-on exposure monitoring myself, it's my favorite,” she said. 

The exposure monitoring she finds most interesting is air sampling. Using an air pump equipped with sampling media, hygienists collect air samples and have the samples analyzed in a lab to determine the presents of potentially hazardous contaminants and whether they in concentrations within occupational exposure limits. Haley finds the process fascinating, especially since everyone wears personal protective equipment that reminds her of post-apocalyptic television scenes. 

“It’s so cool to watch, I love it,” she added.

How Mentors Have Shaped Her Future 

Whether at her desk or out in the field, Haley enjoys developing connections with the people in her department. She said the mentorship she has received inspired her to further her education. 

“I think it’s so nice that I’m surrounded by all these smart people who inspire me to do more. I went from being undecided about grad school to knowing it was the right move,” she said.

In line with her commitment to furthering her education, Haley is pursuing a master’s degree in public health from Eastern Washington University. When she graduates this summer, she hopes to expand her professional experience more with a job in health research. 

“I love research. My role right now isn’t research heavy, but that’s OK because I would not have known about this field, had it not been for this internship,” she said.

Overall, Haley is most appreciative of the insight into industrial hygiene and the professional skills she has adopted throughout her internship. 

“This place has taught me more about professionalism than any job I have had before,” Haley said. “Jefferson Lab teaches you and molds you into what a professional is supposed to be.”

By Parish Thompson