Name: Nicholas Grisso '17
Major: Environmental Science and Sustainability
Hometown: Kirtland, Ohio
Internship Organization: Safex, Inc.
Location: Westerville, Ohio
In this picture, I am dressed in a full hazmat suit with a
full face respirator by Safex's sign. Full hazmat suits are usually used to
protect people when entering a very hazardous environment.
Internship Responsibilities: Over the summer I completed an
internship working full time as an industrial hygiene technician at Safex, Inc.
based in Westerville, Ohio. Industrial hygiene was a field I really enjoyed
working in. Every day was something new and different from the day before. One
day I would be conducting noise monitoring in a factory or construction site,
then the next day I would be sampling for hazardous chemicals at a processing
plant. As an industrial hygiene technician I was able to shadow other
industrial hygienists in the field of work, as well as complete jobs
individually. Through Safex I received several OSHA certification including:
DOT HAZ material shipping, ventilation, and confined space entry and exit. The
majority of my time was spent completing tasks that included: conducting indoor
air quality assessments, sampling and monitoring for lead, silica, noise, and
volatile organic compounds in the field, and conducting qualitative and
quantitative respirator fit tests. The other part of my time was spent learning
the OSHA regulations for different occupational safety situations, and writing
reports based on the results of the field work.
What I Learned: Overall, I received amazing real world
experience and learned a lot about the industrial hygiene field. I felt that I
grew as a person; in industrial hygiene the main emphasis is on protecting
other people and caring about other people’s health. This internship was a
massive stepping stone in finding the career that I want to work in.
