Geoff Pickford had been an Engineering Scientist and Occupational Hygienist for more than 50 years; worked in industry from 1962 until 1989; and then established a private consultancy to date. He is a founding member and Fellow of AIOH, a member of FAMANZ and BOHS, and an inaugural inductee into the AIOH Hall of Fame in December 2023.
He was technical secretary for various National committees, and drafted:
In the late 1960’s he became a NATA signatory in the field of acoustic testing including transmission loss and absorption of building materials in large scale testing chambers.
In the late 1970’s he developed and built the first safe and effective ‘acetone generator’, without patenting it, which is now routinely used throughout the world for clearing membrane filters used in airborne asbestos fibres analysis.
In 1989, he became a NATA signatory for Membrane Filter Method, bulk asbestos identification method, and others; and for many years was a technical assessor of laboratories throughout Australia and New Zealand.
In the 1980’s, he provided significant technical and statistical advice to NATA, and then to Proficiency Testing Australia (PTA) to form the basis of an accreditation program known as National Asbestos Program (NAP) for airborne asbestos laboratories. In 1989, he designed and built a multi-sampling, vibrating bed aerosol fibre generator and supplied airborne asbestos fibre samples for NATA’s and PTA’s accreditation program – covering all NATA and IANZ accredited airborne asbestos fibre laboratories in Australia and New Zealand. This generator is still being used by an Australian Company to generate samples for PTA.
From 1989 until the early 2000’s, he supplied a series of bulk asbestos samples to NATA and PTA, which were sent to all NATA and IANZ accredited bulk asbestos fibre laboratories in Australia and New Zealand. This included the development of a complex, statistically based scoring system to NATA and PTA which is still being used.
From 1989, he has been providing technical advice to PTA on a pro bono basis for both airborne and bulk asbestos fibres.
For more than 30 years, he has provided expert witness reports for various toxic materials.
For the last 7 years, he has developed a nanofabrication based phase contrast test slide for airborne asbestos laboratories, designed as an alternative to the HSE/NPL test slide. This Slide is patented in Australia, United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Having a pathology and airborne asbestos analysis background previously, Sue worked full time as an occupational Hygiene Consultant between 1988 and 2000 with Pickford Resources Pty Ltd, and was a director of the Company. Her duties included laboratory techniques pertaining to optical microscope analysis of airborne asbestos fibres; identification of bulk asbestos fibres; gravimetric inhalable and respirable dust analysis; Fourier Transform Infrared respirable crystalline silica analysis – and was NATA accredited for the above tests. She was involved with in-field sampling of dusts, mists, fume, fibres, gases and vapours. She planned and participated in the training of internal and external laboratory staff for airborne asbestos sampling and analysis, and bulk asbestos identification techniques. She supervised asbestos removal projects, wrote technical documentation, and supervised technical and administrative staff, including general management and organisational tasks related to running a small business.
During the period with Pickford Resources Sue was contracted by NATA and TELARC accreditation agencies to become an technical assessor of occupational hygiene laboratories throughout Australia and New Zealand.
From 2000, Sue gained her Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Care and Protection of Children and Young People, and is a Clinical Social Worker providing therapy and clinical supervision. She worked in NSW Health including Child and Family Teams, Infant, Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Sexual Assault.
Sue lectured at the University of Western Sydney and University of Sydney; provided training, group supervision to a number of private practitioners and those working in government and non-government organisations as well as providing individual clinical supervision. She designed and facilitated several group programmes privately and in collaboration with several non-government organisations.
For three decades, she proof read many expert witness reports written by Geoff Pickford, and for the last six years assisted with various aspects in the development of the Pickford Phase Contrast Test Slide, and is a director of Pickford Resources Pty Ltd.
Each Pickford Test Slide is certified by the Environmental Analysis Laboratory of the Southern Cross University as being equivalent in performance to that of the UK HSE/NPL Mark II Test Slide, as required by the UK HSE ‘Asbestos: Analysts Guide’, HSG248, 2021, Section A1.37.
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