Indo-Canada Outlook | 2009 ACGIH Meritorious Achievement Award for Gyan Rajhans

2009 Meritorious Achievement Award for Gyan Rajhans
from ACGIH American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists

The Meritorious Achievement is given to members of ACGIH^® who have made outstanding, long-term contributions to the field of occupational health and industrial hygiene.

First presented in 1957, the Meritorious Achievement Award is the organization's oldest award. It has been given to individuals for singular achievement and to groups for collective accomplishment.

On receiving the news about this award, Gyan Rajhans said, "This is the highest award in the field, almost like a Life Achievement Award. I am truly humbled."

Until now, Rajhans considered his greatest professional achievement was when he was elected Chair of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) in 1997. 6000 members participated from across the globe in this decision, thus making him the first Indo-Canadian to achieve this distinction in the 60 year history of the Conference.

A recipient of numerous awards, Rajhans topped all these by receiving a Life Achievement Award by OHS Canada (Honourable Mention) in 1999.

Having completed an Engineering degree in Mining Engineering at the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Rajhans came to Canada in 1964 on a student visa to do his post-graduate studies at Queens University in Kingston Ontario. He secured a position with the Ontario Ministry of Health.

In less than ten years he was promoted to Chief of Occupational Health Engineering Services at the Ontario Ministry of Labour. Here he was renowned for bringing international recognition to occupational hygiene in Canada. He not only administered the province's occupational hygiene program effectively, but also wrote and lectured extensively throughout the world on this topic. His contributions have been recognized in several textbooks on occupational hygiene.

The citation for SPECIAL RECOGNITION AT LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD (1999),
stated: "Rajhans is most celebrated for his 1976 work, which demonstrated the link between carbon dioxide levels in indoor air (an indicator of inadequate fresh air supply) and the set of symptoms that characterize Sick Building Syndrome. He was also instrumental in the development of the first detailed protocol for Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) investigations, published by the Ministry of Labour as part of its 1988 Inter-ministerial Committee Report on IAQ."

[Editor's Note: Gyan Rajhans has varied interests, including but not limited to, broadcasting and writing. His columns on Spirituality have been published in South Asian Outlook e-Monthly since 2003.]

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Vol. 3 No. 8 "India is the cradle of the human race... " - Mark Twain March 2009 "Canada is one of the oldest federations the planet still has up and running." - Roy MacGregor