This week we welcome Dr. J. Thomas Pierce to talk about his fascinating background and how we can better connect with people about OEHS. Dr. Pierce has been working in the occupational safety and health arena for half a century and his unique background in medicine, laboratories and the field gives him a perspective that is rare. Some may know him from his long running Action Level column in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health or his more recent work writing books that describe OEHS work through his characters.

John Thomas Pierce was born and raised in southeast Kansas. A researcher and physician, he has practiced public health on four continents. He continues to be active in the Occupational and Environmental Health and Safety (OEHS) writing articles, reviewing technical works and most recently as an author. His fifth book “THE ONE-HUNDRED FOOT DROP” is in review now. His first two books were technical entries applicable to industrial hygiene and toxicology and published by the National Safety Council and the American Conference of Industrial Hygienists, respectively. 

His third book, Hospital Safari (Leather Publishing – 2005) described sub- Saharan medical care. Between 2017 and 2020 he wrote and distributed a book entitled “Million Dollar Speedway” that pioneered narrative storytelling in the environmental and public health fields. He is the 2012 recipient of the Rachel Carson environmental leadership award (Environmental Management Committee, AIHA, Falls Church, Virginia) and has raced bicycles at most competitive levels.