This Industrial Hygienist position is located at the VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System under the Safety and Emergency Management service line and supports the facility in occupational safety and health, fire safety, emergency management, and environmental programs regulated by Federal, state, and local regulatory agencies.

Duties

Major duties include but are not limited to: Performs tasks associated with investigating injuries, fires, and vehicle damages. Identifies, controls, and eliminates industrial and occupational health hazards. Requests immediate action from management to correct conditions which might be expected to cause serious illness, injury or death. Acts as the Asbestos Program Manager and manages the program in compliance with all applicable regulations. Conducts industrial hygiene inspections of all work areas and construction sites to determine compliance with standards. Prepares documents for contracting and purchasing of laboratory services to analyze hazardous materials. Updates and advises the Employee Health physicians to medical surveillance requirements for employees working with hazardous materials. Consults with Safety Program Manager pertaining to development of policies, programs, and procedures designed to improve safety conditions. Provides technical guidance to employees concerning occupational health and industrial hygiene programs and fire safety. Assists facility managers in development and review of safety training requirements. Approves Safety Data Sheets when new products are to be used by staff. Acts as Construction Safety Officer for all applicable construction projects. Selects analytical instruments and sampling criteria to evaluate hazards. Determines probable cause of occupational health problems and recommend measures to protect employees from re-occurrence. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Industrial Hygienist/PD001150 Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 04/17/2024. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. (This is separate from your experience and is mandated by statutory and regulatory requirements.) For a GS-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. You must meet one of the Individual Occupational Requirements described below: A bachelor's or graduate/higher level degree in industrial hygiene, occupational health sciences, occupational and environmental health, toxicology, safety sciences, or related science; OR, A bachelor's degree in a branch of engineering, physical science, or life science that included 12 semester hours in chemistry, including organic chemistry, and 18 additional semester hours of courses in any combination of chemistry, physics, engineering, health physics, environmental health, biostatistics, biology, physiology, toxicology, epidemiology, or industrial hygiene; OR, Certification from the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH). In addition to the above requirement, you must qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-09) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: The acquisition of quantitative and qualitative data, and the measurement of exposures for a variety of chemical, physical, and biological stresses; analysis of data and the prediction of probable effects of exposures on the health and well-being of workers; selection and recommendation of appropriate controls, including management, medical, engineering, education or training, and personal protective equipment. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed a Ph.D. or equivalent graduate degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M. if related. Degree must be relevant to the position to be filled. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond 2 years of graduate level education may be used to qualify applicants for positions at grades GS-11. The education and experience must be directly related to the work of the position to be filled. Preferred Experience: Joint Commission Hazardous Chemical Inventory Exposure Assessments You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: CommunicationsHealth Risk AnalysisHuman FactorsSafety EngineeringTechnical Competence Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: Duties of the position require considerable walking, climbing, prolonged standing, and crouching, while carrying sampling equipment and measuring devices. Personal protective equipment must often times be worn. The incumbent is required to drive motor vehicles. Occasional travel is required. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Education

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Contacts

• Address Northampton VA Medical Center 421 North Main Street Leeds, MA 01053 US
• Name: Thomas Rock
• Email: [email protected]