Ronald D. Schaible, CIH, CSP, CPE Industrial Hygienist, Workplace Safety & Ergonomics Expert

Experienced in the recognition, evaluation, and control of occupational and environmental safety and health hazards involving chemical and physical agents, as well as machinery, equipment, products and manufacturing processes and systems.

Industries: General machining, ferrous and non-ferrous foundries and mills, chemical processing plants, construction and demolition, food processing plants, electroplating shops, metal working plants, municipal incinerators and waste transfer facilities, electronic assembly, printing plants.

Processes: Cold and hot forming of metals, machining, forging, stamping, injection molding, grinding, welding/cutting/brazing/gouging, punching, painting and coating, metalizing, rubber compounding/mixing/extruding/calendaring, pulverizing and micronizing, furnaces and heat treating/quenching, electroplating, abrasive blasting, solvent degreasing, high pressure spraying systems, industrial centrifuging (separators, clarifiers, filters), woodworking, hand and automated assembly, laser machining, packaging, robotics.

Products: Commercial, consumer and industrial products and equipment, cranes hoists and slings, milling machines, lathes, slitters, mechanical power presses, conveyors, screw machines, blenders/vibrators/mixers, compressors, pneumatic tools, powered industrial trucks, paints and coatings, lubricants, gels and sealants, cleaners, adhesives, electroplating chemicals, solvents, asbestos, lead and hazardous chemical products.

Buildings: Commercial, industrial and residential building envelope issues; origin and cause of water intrusion events, mold testing and evaluation; preparation of mold remediation plans; indoor air quality (Sick Building Syndrome, Building Related Illness, Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance).

Industrial Hygiene: Sampling and exposure monitoring for all toxic substances (including asbestos, lead and hexavalent chromium), thermal stress, and ionizing/non-ionizing radiation and illumination; indoor air quality, and biological contamination exposure assessments; occupational noise surveys and vibration; community noise surveys to evaluate impact of manufacturing operations; ventilation system evaluation and testing; engineering, and biological and medical monitoring interventions.
Safety: Machine and equipment guarding; material handling methods and ergonomic task evaluations; hazardous material handling/labeling/use/storage/disposal; electrical hazards and energy control (lockout/tagout); permit required confined spaces; process safety management; and limitations, proper selection, use, training and maintenance of personal protective equipment. (e.g., head, eye, hearing, respirators, hands and feet, etc.).

Ergonomics and Human Factors: Task analyses and evaluations of duty exposure; workplace layouts; acceptable dimensions for visual work, clearances and adjustability of design; force, posture and repetition of motion. Equipment design involving displays and controls, and hand and portable power tool and product designs. Information transfer involving assessing comprehensibility, legibility (size, placement, color, contrast, use of validated pictographs or symbols) and readability (time, motion, attention) of labels, signs and warnings on products, Material Safety Data Sheets, and operating, maintenance and technical manuals. Anthropometry applied to physical characteristics for product design. Assessments of human capacity applied to work tasks, job demands and performance; non-traditional work shifts.

Safety Training: Developed and/or conducted programs involving machine guarding, energy control (lockout/tagout), permit required confined space entry, forklift safety, lifting and ergonomics, hearing conservation, personal protective equipment, process safety management, HAZWOPER, fire extinguishers, supervisory safety training and accident investigation, chemical safety, Hazard Communication and Right to Know, lasers, bloodborne pathogens, new employee orientation, and general safety and health hazard awareness.

Product Stewardship: Authored or reviewed hundreds of Material Safety Data Sheets and product labels for conformance with ANSI, OSHA, Canadian WHMIS, California Proposition 65, U.S. EPA TSCA, European Union, and Global Harmonization requirements. Submitted an EPA Pre-Manufacture Notification for a new chemical.
Regulatory Compliance: Federal & State OSHA regulations, recordkeeping, and inspection/citation/variance processes, EPA regulations, ANSI and other industry standards. Developed and implemented plant, division and corporate policies and procedures.

Program Assessments: Developed compliance and management system assessment protocols; participated in numerous compliance assessments; conducted numerous risk evaluation and risk improvement insurance assessments.

University Teaching: OSHA #521, “OSHA Guide to Industrial Hygiene” and OSHA #2045 “Machinery & Machine Guarding Standards” (Northampton Community College). “Environmental & Industrial Hygiene I” (Millersville University, OSEH 321; formerly OSHM 222). Fundamental theory and methods used in the identification, evaluation and control of injury risks from chemical contaminants and biological agents. Includes coverage of toxicology, exposure standards, medical surveillance, toxic air emissions, air-sampling techniques, industrial ventilation and air pollution control, and personal protective equipment. Developed laboratory classes with sampling and ventilation instrumentation to provide “hands on” familiarity with selected equipment. “Environmental & Industrial Hygiene II” (Millersville University, OSEH 422; formerly OSHM 223). Fundamental theory and methods used in the identification, evaluation and control of injury risks from physical agents such as ionizing and nonionizing radiation, lasers, ergonomics, thermal stress, and noise. Covers regulatory standards, control technologies. Developed laboratory classes with instrumentation to provide “hands on” familiarity with selected equipment. “Health and Safety” (St. Francis University, HRIR 527 & 544). The courses emphasized the nature and extent of health and safety hazards posed by environmental conditions and employee behavior at work. The courses reviewed pertinent legislation and applicable management responsibilities.

Professional Experience

Provide technical investigations, analysis, reports, and testimony toward the resolution of commercial and personal injury litigation involving: manufacturing and industrial safety practices and processes; occupational health exposures from chemical, biological, and physical agents; human factors and warnings; personal protective equipment; and ergonomics.

Provide safety engineering analysis and design, risk evaluations and safety auditing, training and workshops, and environmental contaminant monitoring for industry.

Instructor with a host training organization and consortium partner within the Mid Atlantic OSHA Training Institute Education Center (MAOTIEC), which is part of the national network of nonprofit organizations authorized by OSHA as training agents to deliver occupational safety and health training to private and public sector workers, supervisors, and employers.

Sole proprietorship providing environmental and occupational health and safety services to industry.

Responsible for worldwide occupational health and safety policy, strategy, and services for a Fortune 500 company with more than 250 locations in 50 countries.

• Provided technical support on occupational health, safety, indoor environmental quality, ergonomics/human factors, and training issues.
• Developed and deployed a global health and safety management system.
• Managed the global chemical product stewardship program.
• Developed an electronically deployable safety and health assessment (audit) tool.
• Deployed a behavior based safety program.
• Coordinated government compliance activities.
• Developed a corporate ergonomics program and behavior based safety program, including development of, and served as instructor for, an Ergonomic Task Team training program for factory workers and supervisors.
• Developed “Introduction to Ergonomics” course at AMP Inc. and served as principal instructor. Designed for engineers and supervisors, it covered principles of ergonomic design; ergonomic task analysis; and use of anthropometric data for machines, hand tools, and manual materials handling.
• Developed “Advanced Human Factors Workshop” at AMP Inc. and served as principal instructor. Designed for engineers and supervisors, this 16-hour workshop explored ergonomic and human factors principles of task design and analysis, using computer analysis, case studies, and biofeedback devices.
• GAO assessed AMP Inc. as one of only five “benchmark” companies serving as models for other companies aiming to improve their ergonomics programs.
  [Worker Protection:Private Sector Ergonomics Programs Yield Positive Results. (GAO/HEHE-97-163). U.S. Government Accounting Office, Washington, D.C. 27 August 1997].

• Continued responsibility for the domestic chemical product stewardship program.
• Conducted due diligence hydrogeologic surveys for property and leasehold transfers.
• Developed and conducted environmental awareness training programs.
• Developed comprehensive environmental policy, procedure, and audit protocols.
• Conducted environmental and hazardous waste audits.

• Investigated process hazards and reports of worker exposures to chemical and physical agents, and indoor environmental quality agents.
• Conducted safety design reviews with engineering staff.
• Developed, implemented and managed the corporate product stewardship program (Material Safety Data Sheets and product labeling) for chemicals.

• Responsible for OSHA and EPA compliance activities for three secondary lead (Pb) smelters in Georgia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
• Investigated equipment guarding compliance
• Performed industrial hygiene sampling and provided oversight for occupational health monitoring.
• Evaluated industrial ventilation and air pollution control systems.
• Monitored disposal of waste acid, plastic and slag.

• Responsible for OSHA compliance in an 800 employee hand tool file manufacturing facility, including equipment guarding and industrial hygiene activities.
• Developed and conducted supervisory safety training programs.

• Conducted risk evaluation and risk improvement assessments of casualty, general liability, crime, fire and inland marine loss prevention programs, with emphasis on heavy industries.
• Provided regional industrial hygiene services to policyholders.

• Conducted risk evaluation and risk improvement assessments of casualty, general liability, crime, fire and inland marine loss prevention programs.

Teaching Experience

Northampton Community College

Instructor
2018 to present

Instructor with a host training organization and consortium partner within the Mid Atlantic OSHA Training Institute Education Center (MAOTIEC), which is part of the national network of nonprofit organizations authorized by OSHA as training agents to deliver occupational safety and health training to private and public sector workers, supervisors, and employers. Courses taught have included OSHA #521, “OSHA Guide to Industrial Hygiene” (4 days/26 contact hours).

Millersville University

Adjunct Instructor in Occupational Safety & Environmental Health in the Department of Applied Engineering, Safety & Technology
2011 to 2013

Undergraduate courses “Environmental & Industrial Hygiene I” and “Environmental & Industrial Hygiene II.”

St. Francis University

Adjunct Instructor, Graduate School of Human Resources and Industrial Relations
1997 to 2002

Graduate course in “Health and Safety.”

Millersville University

Adjunct Instructor in Occupational Safety & Hygiene Management.
1983 to 1996

Undergraduate courses “Fundamentals of Industrial Hygiene I” and “Fundamentals of Industrial Hygiene II.”

Harrisburg Area Community College

Adjunct Instructor in Industrial Hygiene
1979 to 1982

.

Education

• M.S. Environmental Health, West Chester University, 1990
• B.S. Commerce & Engineering Sciences, Drexel University, 1971
• Numerous Continuing Education programs and Professional Development Conferences

Additional training:

• Utilizing Regulations and Consensus Standards to Ensure Safe Confined Space Entry, AIHceEXP, Philadelphia, PA, 2018
• Ethics for EHS Professionals, Phylmar Academy, 2017
• Fungal Data Interpretation, EMLab P&K, 2017
• Safety and Emergency Response Training, Confined Space Safety, FIRECON

Professional Registrations and Certifications

• Registered Professional Engineer #36714-Safety (Massachusetts)
• Certified Industrial Hygienist in Comprehensive Practice, Certificate No. 2450
• Certified Safety Professional, Certificate No. 4825
• Certified Professional Ergonomist, Certificate No. 271 (2/11/08 to present; voluntary change from CHFP)
• Certified Human Factors Professional, Certificate No. 271 (12/31/93-2/11/08; voluntary change to CPE)
• Certified Hazardous Materials Manager, Master Level, Certificate No. 371
• Registered Environmental Professional, Certificate No. REP 2546
• Certified Hazard Control Manager, Master Level, Certificate No. 1540
• Certified Product Safety Manager, Senior Level, Certificate No. 246

Professional Memberships and Affiliations

• Contributor, “Noise Measurement Course” sponsored by the Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation (CAOHC) (2010-2011)
• Diplomate, Academy of Industrial Hygiene
• Full/Regular/Voting Member, American Industrial Hygiene Association; American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists
• Full Member, ANSI/AIHA Accredited Standards Committee Z9 on Health and Safety Standards for Ventilation Systems, and Member of the Z9.6 Subcommittee on Exhaust Systems for Grinding, Buffing and Polishing, (2009-2017)
• Member, ANSI/AIHA Accredited Standards Committee Z10 on Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems; Product Stewardship Society (an affiliate of the American Industrial Hygiene Association)
• Professional Member, American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), and Member of the Standards Development Council of ASSP (2002-2004)
• Member, Alliance of Hazardous Materials Professionals; Indoor Air Quality Association; Society for Chemical Hazard Communication; Human Factors and Ergonomics Society; ANSI Safety and Health Standards Board (1997-1998); OSHA Task Force of the Labor Policy Association (1997-1998)
• Representative for ASSP on: ASTM F13.30 (formerly ANSI Z41) “Footwear” Committee (2001-2005); and Board of Directors for the Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation (CAOHC) (2004-2014)
• Alternate Representative for ASSP on ASTM E50 Committee, “Environmental Assessment, Risk Management and Corrective Action” (2003-2005)
• Affiliate Member, International Occupational Hygiene Association
• Past Member, Industrial Arts Advisory Council, Pennsylvania Department of Education
• Chair, Occupational Safety and Health Policy Subcommittee of the National Association of Manufacturers (1997-1999)
• Administrator, International Division, American Society of Safety Professionals (1998-1999)
• Co-Founder/President Central Pennsylvania Section, American Industrial Hygiene Association (1988-1989, and thereafter)

Publications

Grugle, N., Schaible, R. (2015). "PS Asks about Sleep Deprivation: Nancy Grugle and Ron Schaible." Professional Safety, June, 34-39.

Hutchison, Tom and Theresa Y. Schultz. (Eds.), Schaible, R. (Cond.). (2014). “Hearing Conservation Manual, Fifth Edition.” Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation, Milwaukee, WI. November 2014.

Turina, M., Schaible, R., Vigilante, W. (2009). “Forensic Ergonomics: Theory and Practice.” Published and presented at the Nordic Ergonomics Society 41st Annual Conference. LO-Skolen, Helsinøre, Denmark. June 23, 2009.

Schaible, R., (2005). “The Role of the Indoor Environmental Professional in Mold Remediation,” Proceedings of the 2005 ASSP Professional Development Conference, New Orleans, LA. June 13, 2005.

Schaible, R., (2003). “The Growing Problem of Mold,” Ohio Lawyers Weekly: March 17, 2003.

Meeker, D., Schaible, R., (1999). “Agricultural Machinery Operator Safety,” Published and presented at the National Institute for Farm Safety, Ocean City, MD. June 21, 1999.

Schaible, R., (1990). An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Ventilation Controls in Selected Senior High School Industrial Arts/Technology Education Programs in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Master’s Thesis at West Chester University, West Chester, PA.

Expert Peer Reviewer, (1986). CSP Refresher Guide, ASSP, and PA Industrial Arts Safety Guide. Pennsylvania Department of Education. December 31, 1986.

Schaible, R., (1986). Hygienic Guide: 1,1-Dichloroethane, 3rd Revision, American Industrial Hygiene Association. August 31, 1986.

Selected Invited Presentations

• Schaible, R., (2017). “Practical Ergonomics in Litigation.” National Ergonomics Conference & ErgoExpo™. Las Vegas, NV. August 24, 2017.
• Turina, M., Schaible, R., Vigilante, W. (2009). “Forensic Ergonomics: Theory and Practice”. Published and presented at the Nordic Ergonomics Society 41st Annual Conference. LO-Skolen, Helsinøre, Denmark. June 23, 2009.
• Schaible, R., (2009). “Mold: Science, Strategies and Remediation.” Lorman Education Services, Wilmington, DE. January 14, 2009.
• Schaible, R., (2008). “Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Workplace Safety Incidents,” National Business Institute, Lancaster, PA. September 9, 2008.
• Schaible, R., (2008). “Occupational Noise Assessments in Construction: Can We Do Better?” Joint Meeting of the Central Pennsylvania Chapters of the ASSP and AIHA, York, PA. January 9, 2008.
• Schaible, R., (2006). “Perception of Risk – Employer, Worker, and Juror Perspectives,” Annual Conference of the Workers Injury Law and Advocacy Group in Orlando, FL. May 7, 2006.
• Schaible, R., (2005). “The Role of the Indoor Environmental Professional in Mold Remediation,” ASSP 2005 Professional Development Conference, New Orleans, LA. June 13, 2005.
• Schaible, R., (2002). “Conducting Bioaerosol Investigations,” Ohio State Bar Association, Continuing Legal Education Institute, Columbus, OH, December 6, 2002.
• Meeker, D., Schaible, R., (1999). “Agricultural Machinery Operator Safety,” Published and presented at the National Institute for Farm Safety, Ocean City, MD. June 21, 1999.
• Schaible, R., (1997). Testimony on behalf of The National Association of Manufacturers regarding OSHA's Reinvention Efforts before the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the Education and the Workforce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on July, 23 1997. Washington, DC.
• Schaible, R., (1996). “Safety Management Essentials,” Tri-State Safety Council, Hagerstown, MD, April 11, 1996.
• Schaible, R., (1995). “Industrial Hygiene Sampling Strategies,” Conestoga Foundryman's Society, Lancaster, PA. April 19, 1995.
• Schaible, R., (1988 & 1989). “Environmental Audits,” Government Institutes on October 21, 1988 and March 31, 1989.
• Schaible, R., (1997). Testimony on behalf of The National Association of Manufacturers regarding OSHA's Reinvention Efforts before the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the Education and the Workforce Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on July, 23 1997. Washington, DC.
• Schaible, R., (1996). “Safety Management Essentials,” Tri-State Safety Council, Hagerstown, MD, April 11, 1996.
• Schaible, R., (1995). “Industrial Hygiene Sampling Strategies,” Conestoga Foundryman's Society, Lancaster, PA. April 19, 1995.
• Schaible, R., (1988 & 1989). “Environmental Audits,” Government Institutes on October 21, 1988 and March 31, 1989.

v. 06/13/22