Biopharma EHS Podcast Episode #9 Opening So for today, first off, I'll mention what we discussed last time, then we I'll cover our main topic for today - which is how to be a road warrior of environmental, health and safety, and then finally, I will mention important upcomings and happenings that are applicable to environmental, health and safety professionals in the Biopharma industry. So, in our last podcast, episode 8, I discussed the future of EH&S.  Now, when I'm talking about the future, I'm not talking what's on OSHA's regulatory agenda for this year or next, I'm talking about 15 to 20 years ahead.  In that episode, the key issues and technologies that I personally forecasted and will impact environmental, health and safety professionals include the untethering of the workplace, the widespread use of mobile phone applications for environmental, health and safety, industrial hygiene, environmental compliance and more; managing environmental, health and safety in crowdsourcing; just-in-time EHS training; conferences becoming much more social; and finally "occupational toxicology on a chip".  If any of this interests you, I would strongly suggest that you go back and listen to the entire episode. Let's now go ahead and move on to the next topic, and get started with how to be an effective road warrior of environmental, health and safety? So what exactly is a Road Warrior?  Well, a road warrior is typically, is typically, thought of as a person that travels frequently on business.  So far, in my lifetime, I've seen environmental, health and safety professionals that traveled anywhere from once a quarter to provide environmental, health and safety compliance support to facilities under their control, to those that left home on Sunday afternoon and didn't returned home till Friday evening.  These EH&S professionals included internal auditors, contract manufacturing auditors, consultants, and EH&S managers that were responsible for managing multiple facilities throughout the world.  On the extreme end of things there are some professionals that travel 250,000 air miles per year.  To put that in perspective, that's approximately one roundtrip flight from Denver to India per month. So if you're a Road Warrior of EH&S, how do you make the best out of this situation where you are always gone away from the office? First off, being an effective EHS Road Warrior starts well before you think about going to the airport and requires careful planning.  When you travel a lot you need to develop a routine.  To the extent possible, try to schedule your trips at the same time every month and then block them out on your calendar. Plan trips carefully and at least two months ahead.  Make sure you have a way to compare your business calendar with your personal calendar.  After all you don't want to schedule a trip and then realize that it's conflicts with important life events. Next, you will also want to get the right kind of luggage, the right kind of laptop computer case, and other travel accessories.  Look for luggage with lots of outside pockets to stash away all your gear.  True Road Warriors hardly ever check luggage.  It's just not worth the delay waiting to check/pickup your bags, and the risk of having your luggage lost.  You may also want to arm yourself with a really good set of headphones.  I personally use a set of Bose noise-cancelation headphones and they are great the next time you have a screaming baby sitting next to you. If you drive your own car to the airport, try to always park in the same general area.  This will reduce the chance that you will forget where you park your car.  This is especially true when you start having back-to-back trips.  If you can't always park in the same place take a picture of the parking lot location sign with your smartphone's digital camera. When traveling