Certified Industrial Hygienist, OSHA Specialist

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
Leslie C. Birnbaum is a Certified Industrial Hygienist with  more than 30 years of experience in the fields of environmental, health and safety (EH&S), public health, and exposure assessments. Her specific areas of expertise include the development of site-specific health and safety plans (HASPs) and client-specific training, medical surveillance, and regulatory compliance programs. Over the course of her career thus far, she has developed over 100 health and safety plans and training programs covering almost all health and safety topics. Her format and approach for HASP development have been adopted as a model by contract management companies working with the New York City of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP). She has subsequently participated in the review of contractors’ HASPs for compliance to regulatory requirements, project specifications, and good health and safety practices for the NYCDEP.

Ms. Birnbaum is well-versed in interpretation of EH&S federal and state regulations and has provided to her clients on-going regulatory compliance and strategic environmental management services. Other areas of expertise include EH&S audits and inspections, indoor air quality and mold assessment, public exposure assessments, and comprehensive chemical, physical and biological hazard surveys.

Ms. Birnbaum has provided consulting services to protect employees working in construction, underwater, warehousing and material handling, remediation of state and federal superfund and landfill sites, pipeline/utility services, laboratories, educational facilities, imaging and photography, and governmental agencies including the NYCDEP and other local governments in the northeast corridor.

Primary services offered by this consortium member can be found on the following pages (click on to see):

Occupational Health and Safety Services

EDUCATION
Columbia University, 1985
MPH, Environmental Public Health

State University of New York at Binghamton, 1977
B.A. Environmental Science,/Geology,

Certified Industrial Hygienist, 1994 (Cert. No. 6521)
American Safety & Health Institute (ASHI) Instructor, 2010
First Safety Institute Instructor, 2010

• EXPERIENCE
  LBW Consulting
  Environmental, Health and Safety Specialist (1996 – 2009, 2011-Present)
• Site-specific health and safety plans and job hazard analyses development and review.
• EH&S federal and state regulatory tracking, on-call services, auditing/inspections, and the development of fact sheets of newly proposed and promulgated regulations.
• Site-specific/task-specific EH&S training program development and delivery.
• Chemical, physical, biological and surveys and evaluations.
• Indoor air quality projects include interviews, sampling, HVAC testing and remediation recommendations for school districts, colleges, commercial buildings, and private homes.
• Development and implementation of company-specific written compliance programs and standard operating procedures (SOPs).
• Accident and root cause analysis investigations.
• Development and implementation of HAZWOPER program requirements including health and safety plans, medical surveillance, training, and on-site implementation.

• Bidwell Environmental, LLC
  Health and Safety Director (2009-2011)
• Development of site-specific health and safety plans and job hazard analyses for Construction Management Teams for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) projects.
• Review of Contractors’ Health and Safety Plans and job hazard analyses for the NYCDEP projects.
• Managed the in-house health and safety programs including medical surveillance, training and health and safety program development and implementation. Worked with management and technical staff to recommend and implement cost-effective policies for maintaining compliance and safe work environments for Bidwell personnel.
• Interpretation and assessment of EH&S standards and guidelines including OSHA, NFPA, ASHRAE, ANSI and EPA, as well as state related requirements and building fire codes.

Wehran EnviroTech, Middletown, New York
Corporate Health and Safety Manager (1990-1995)

• Responsible for overseeing the company’s health and safety programs. Worked with management and technical staff to evaluate and implement cost-effective policies for maintaining compliance.
• Project manager of an on-going strategic environmental management/regulatory compliance program for Minolta Corporation in Ramsey, New Jersey.

SELECTED WORK EXPERIENCE
Health and Safety Plan Development and Review

• Extensive experience in environmental health and safety compliance in the industrial and commercial sectors including the development of corporate health and safety programs, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and accident prevention programs. Development of site-specific health and safety plans for contractors and contract management that reflects the requirements of the applicable governmental regulatory agencies and the related contract/specifications for the project.
• Review and evaluation of contractor health and safety plans for compliance and to verify plan addresses the hazards and controls for the site-specific project/activity.

Training
Training experience includes the development and delivery of EH&S training programs specifically tailored to the client, site, and projects. Provided training in, but not limited to: Hazard Communication, HAZWOPER, respiratory and personal protective equipment, confined space entry, fall protection, arc flash, construction safety, lead and asbestos awareness, lockout/tagout, crane safety, bloodborne pathogens, and hearing conservation.

On-Going Regulatory Compliance and Strategic Environmental Management
Managed on-going regulatory compliance program for Minolta Corporation including:

• Interpret and assess environmental, health and safety standards and guidelines as well as state-related requirements and building fire codes.
• Reviewed proposed and final regulations for evaluating potential applicability to the client’s nation-wide operations.
• Develop OSHA-required written programs and standard operating procedures including but not limited to ergonomics, welding, incident reporting, warehouse safety, and emergency response.
• Respond to on-call inquiries regarding regulatory and other EH&S issues.

Environmental Health and Safety Auditing
Perform health and safety audit programs for various industries including warehousing, film processing and camera repair, printing, medical product manufacturing, fiber optics, educational facilities, sewage treatment, landfilling, and hazardous waste. Audits include development of audit protocols, review of relevant records, site inspection, employee interviews and audit finding report. Prepared fact sheets for topics where clients were not familiar with specific issues identified in the facility during the audit.

Comprehensive Industrial Hygiene Services
Employee risk assessments and industrial hygiene monitoring programs performed including sampling and monitoring programs for hydrocarbon/ petroleum products, solvents, metals, silica and noise.

Indoor Air Quality Studies
Indoor air quality and mold investigation studies conducted in office buildings, colleges, central school district, and private homes. Develop sampling protocols, conduct employee interviews, perform air sampling as necessary, and evaluate potential contaminant sources.

Health & Safety Consultant Services for Underwater Construction Projects
Provided underwater construction health and safety services for various NYCDEP projects at the Gowanus WPCP, Rondout West Branch Tunnel, Gilboa Dam, and Newtown Creek WPCP. Health and safety services at these locations include review and approval of health and safety plans, task hazard analyses and dive plans for underwater activities as well as the development of construction management site-specific health and safety plans for activities conducted on barges and in cofferdams, shafts and underwater tunnels.

New York City DEP Projects

• Water Pollution Control Plants: Bowery Bay, Coney Island, Gowanus, Hunts Point, Newtown Creek, North River, Oakwood Beach, Owls Head, Red Hook, and Wards Island.
• Reservoirs, Dam and Aqueducts: Gilboa Dam/Schoharie Reservoir, Ashokan Reservoir, Catskill Aqueduct/Catskill Optimization Project, Hillview Reservoir, Rondout-West Branch Tunnel/ Shaft 6, and Shaft 22 Connection-Transmission Main site.

PUBLICATIONS
1. Birnbaum, L.C., Marino Sanford L, “Industrial Environmental, Health and Safety Preplanning for Improved Operations and Product Quality,” American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition Technical Session, May, 1996.
2. Andrews, Christopher and Birnbaum, Leslie, “Training Techniques in Personal Decontamination,” National Environmental Training Association Journal, May, 1995.
3. Sanford, L., and Birnbaum, L.,“New Department of Transportation HM-181 Regulations, Emphasis on Task Analysis, National Environmental Training Association Journal, April, 1993.

PARTIAL CLIENT LISTING
Brown & Caldwell (Allendale, NJ)
The Chazen Companies (Poughkeepsie, NY)
Frankin Regional Council of Governments (Franklin, MA)
International Environmental Services (Wayne, PA)
Lakeland Central School District (Lakeland, NY)
Malcolm Pirnie (White Plains, NY)
Marist College (Poughkeepsie, NY)
Minolta Business Systems (Mahwah, NJ)
Mnolta Corporation (Ramsey, NJ)
National Amusements, Inc.
New York Air Brake (Buffalo, NY)
Remee Corporation (Florida, NY)
Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company
Weston & Sampson Engineers (Peabody, MA)
West Point Military Academy

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
American Academy of Industrial Hygiene
American Industrial Hygiene Association
American Society of Safety Engineers

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT/TRAINING
30-Hour OSHA Construction Safety (2011)
40-hour HAZWOPER/Current 8-hour HAZWOPER Refresher Training
Respiratory Protection Program Administrator (2010)
Arc Flash Safety (2010)
Arsenic toxicity (2010)
Biological Monitoring (2009)
Pollution Prevention (2004)
Clean Water Act (2003)
Design of Industrial Air Ducts (2001)
Mold Contamination (2001)
Fire Protection for Industrial Hygienists (2000)
Principles of Machine Guarding (1999)
Occupational Ergonomics: Control of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (1999)
Planning, Executing and Evaluating Emergency Response Drills (1998)
Extremely Low Frequency Electric and Magnetic Fields (1997)
Introduction to the Clean Air Act and Air Quality Permitting (1997)
Industrial Ventilation (1994)
Health and Safety Auditing (1992)