Workplace environments can be extremely hazardous for workers. As humans continue to rely on fossil fuels, rising levels of toxic gasses (e.g. carbon monoxide and methane) put our health at increasing risk. Loud noises generated by factory environments and stadiums affect hearing. Exposures from manufacturing sites and oil and gas refineries also negatively impact human populations. Luckily, researchers in the field of environmental and occupational health (EOH) are able to evaluate these hazards and coach organizations on managing them.
BYU’s EOH Lab provides opportunities for students to help solve these public health issues. The lab is split between three professors: Dr. Steve Thygerson, Dr. Jim Johnston, and Dr. John Beard. Each professor brings their unique expertise to give students a complete EOH experience. Students can study under one or all three professors depending on their research interests.
Thygerson focuses on worker exposures in brick factories, artisanal mines, and chemical manufacturing plants. He has traveled to places such as Peru, Nepal, Brazil, Belgium, Thailand, Mozambique, and South Africa to evaluate working environments. He takes students on each trip and trains them on the required skills and tools to measure each unique hazard.
“It’s all ultimately about human health. We’re trying to train more occupational health and safety professionals,” implores Thygerson. “That’s what we do in our labs. That’s where we train them as we’re trying to get them up and running, so [the students] can save more lives.”
In the kilns, they sample air quality and test decibel levels to ensure the factories are compliant with current regulations and workers are not inhaling toxic vapors, gasses, or particulates. Additionally, his research team trains supervisors and managers on how to test for and mitigate hazards inherent in brick factories. Students working alongside Thygerson see firsthand how their research helps communities.
Thygerson has also collaborated on other projects throughout the world. For example, he has studied miners in Pakistan and will travel to research working environments in Mexico City this summer. In addition to brick kilns, Thygerson has researched the health of stonemasons on their excavation sites. Thygerson has also collaborated with Dr. Randy Page, a fellow BYU researcher in the Department of Public Health, on a cultural immersion project in Fiji.
Thygerson relishes when his pupils are excited about health and safety management. “This is a really exciting field, but nobody really knows about it,” he says. “These students impact a lot of lives.”
Students can gain connections from lab work due to strong networking with BYU alumni. Graduates from the environmental and occupational health emphasis are employed in a variety of locations, including Boeing, Tesla, Amazon, and Valero. Students are often recruited by corporations directly since the EOH workforce is shrinking across the country. Thygerson’s lab perfectly prepares students to tackle obstacles they may face in the professional world.
Parker Willis (PH, ’24) joined Thygerson’s lab when he switched from construction management to EOH. He specifically appreciates the mentorship environment and training in critical machines that Thygerson provides. “Having done an internship myself, it was a little bit more stressful because there were certain pieces of equipment that I hadn't used before,” said Willis. “It's harder in that moment to say ‘I have to go do this, but I've never used this equipment before.’ [In a lab] I can say, 'I have to go take a sample; I've never done this before, but I have a mentor. I have a professor right here with me.’”
Thygerson has also equipped Willis with many extracurricular learning opportunities. “As I have tried to really go above and beyond, opportunities and connections have presented themselves in ways that I would have never thought,” comments Willis. “My wife and I are going to Thailand because of my research with him.”
The lab is funded by a variety of different grants and donations to make the global research possible. Thygerson has received several National Institute of Health grants in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University and three Nepali universities (Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu Medical College and Kathmandu University) to conduct research in Nepal. Additionally, the Grants on the Edge from the College of Life Sciences as well as Experiential Learning Grants from the Department of Public Health have enabled students to travel with Thygerson. Both funding sources also support the heavy cost of equipment to run environmental tests in the lab and the field.
“Our job as public health professionals is to keep people focused on the things that are important to them: their health, family, and friends. Once people get sick, or their family gets sick, from work or something else, then all of their focus goes to that,” Thygerson remarks. “If we’re doing our job then workers don’t have to worry about the other things. They can keep their focus on their top priorities, God, and the family.”
To get involved with Thygerson’s lab, email him at steven.thygerson@byu.edu.
5-7 students
Before joining the lab, students should have the following:
- A passion for STEM
- A background in chemistry
- A teachable and dependable attitude
- Cultural competency
- Company relations
- Equipment calibration
- Odor thresholds
- Exposure limits
- Air and noise sampling
- Dealing with radioactive hazards
- Training
- Data acquisition
- Communication
