christian dupressoir
After completing a BSc I worked with the Dept of Customs & Excise in their Sydney Laboratories. The job provided opportunities to work in a variety of laboratories specialising in different analytical work. For a new graduate it was a shock analysing “real” products. Many analyses were done by IR, which was fun because at Uni undergraduates were not allowed to handle such instruments. I remember that the Customs Dept had thousands of IR reference scans to help identify products imported from overseas. The set of scans was so expensive that it was split up between the Sydney and Melbourne laboratories. If a scan could not be identified in Sydney it was sent to Melbourne and vice versa.
After about five years with Customs & Excise I worked at the School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine at Sydney University from 1974 – 1984 in the Occupational Hygiene Section. The work involved teaching, research and consulting. Occupation hygiene is about the recognition, evaluation and control of work hazards. At the time there were no courses in occupational hygiene in Australia and people went overseas to study the subject. At the SPH&TM we started the first Australian courses in occupational hygiene. I was fortunate to learn about this “new” field working “hands-on” with very experienced practitioners. In 1982 I sat for the American Board of Industrial Hygiene exams and became a certified industrial hygienist (CIH). I was quite proud of this because prior to 1982 there were only two CIHs in Australia.
In late 1984 I was employed by Sydney Water as their first occupational hygienist. I set up an occupational hygiene laboratory and provided services within the organisation. In 1996 I completed an M Appl Sc. in OH&S through UWS. During my career at Sydney Water I have seen many changes. Technical type jobs, including mine, are being outsourced.
I consider that I have been fortunate in my work career. I obtained a good and relevant job at the first attempt; all of my jobs have been challenging and fulfilling and I’ll be leaving my current job at about the right time for my age.