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Chapter 8 THE ROLE OF INDUSTRY
The financial support and active involvement of industry in the affairs of NEHA have contributed appreciably to the overall success of the Association since its founding in 1937. It would have been surprising indeed if commercial organizations and industry associa tions having a stake in environmental health matters had failed to see the potential benefits to industry inherent in the membership composition of NEHA and its focus on technological innovation, education and enhanced professionalism. The Annual Educa tional Conferences, the Journal, and the many affiliate meetings all afforded a unique forum in which to meet the nation's key regulatory, military and academic environmental health specialists in an atmosphere of mutual respect. As might have been expected, the commercial mix of NEHA's industry exhibitors and advertisers, and in fact, of the industry sanitarians who became active members of the Association, have reflected the specialties and interests of the general NEHA membership during its 50 year evolution. In those years in which food, milk and ''general'' sanitation were the principal specialty of most Association members, industry representation was heavily weighted toward the manufacturers and suppliers of food service equipment, paper and plastic goods, sanitation chemicals, insecticides, rodenti cides and basic on-site disposal systems and components. As the responsibilities and interests of environmental health practitioners became more technical and wide-ranging, the NEHA industry group broadened to include a more diverse and technology-oriented range of products and services for air, water and waste monitoring, laboratory analysis, toxic materials handling and disposal, control of chemical hazards in the workplace and other environments, quality control in food manufacturing and retail operations, resource conservation and more sophisticated waste disposal systems. In NEHA's earlier years, its principal attraction for exhibitors and advertisers was to foster good will and to generate sales indirectly by familiarizing regulatory sanitarians with the products and services offered by the proponent. More recently, a number of new exhibitors and advertisers have been attracted to NEHA as a source of prospective customers among its members rather than for good will and third-party sales poten tials. Exhibitors and advertisers who supply textbooks, visual aids, test equipment and data processing materials are among this new group. An impressive list of industry associations and individual corporations have been sup porters of NEHA virtually since its inception, in part to promote the interests of the industries or corporations concerned, but also to keep abreast of new trends and to encourage the Association in meeting its goals. Particularly among the industry associations, the individuals representing these organizations have been qualified sanitarians holding active membership in NEHA. A partial list of these long-time industry supporters includes: the Paper Cup and Container Institute (now the Single Service Institute), National Restaurant Association, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola U.S.A., Soap and Detergent Association, U.S. Brewers Association, Economics Laboratory, Inc. M.C. Nottingham Company, J.T. Eaton and Company, Mars Air Doors, Chilean Iodine Institute, Hobart Manufacturing Co., Hatco Corpora tion, DuBois Chemicals, National Automatic Merchandising Association, the National Sanitation Foundation (although not a per se "industry" organization), Airkem, and others.
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