Certified Industrial Hygienists Help Prevent Workplace Hazards
The American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH) administers the internationally recognized Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) program.
The presence and expertise of a CIH can make a dramatic difference in the health and wellbeing of workers as well as provide employers with a key component of their health, safety and risk management efforts.
Last month, the Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was interviewed for an article with NBC News. The article, “OSHA Chief: Inequality in America is About Workplace Hazards, Too” discusses workplace challenges that concern more than just what a worker earns.
In the article, David Michaels, Ph.D., M.P.H., states, “There’s a clear correlation between low wage jobs and unsafe jobs….Workers in low wage jobs are at much greater risk of conditions that will make it impossible for them to live in a healthy way, to earn money for their family, to build middle class lives.” He goes on to report, “The Center for Disease Control reports there were nearly four million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in 2012. But workplace illness almost never gets reported. That’s in part because medical practitioners rarely know how to identify an illness as work-related.”
There are dedicated experts that are uniquely qualified to help prevent workplace hazards, injuries and illnesses. Certified Industrial Hygienists are a select group of industrial hygiene professionals who are the premier practitioners of the profession. The CIH designation requires the industry’s most demanding measure of education, experience and examination.
CIHs have demonstrated an understanding of numerous core competencies that are often associated with workplace hazards, injuries and illnesses. They include:
- Air Sampling and Instrumentational Analysis
- Basic Science
- Biohazards
- Biostatistics and Epidemiology
- Chemical Hazards
- Community Exposure
- Engineering Controls/Ventilation
- Ergonomics
- Health Risk Analysis and Hazard Communication
- Ionizing Radiation
- Management
- Noise and Hearing Loss Prevention
- Non-Engineering Controls
- Nonionizing Radiation
- Thermal Stressors
- Toxicology
- Work Environments and Industrial Processes
“The presence and expertise of a CIH can make a dramatic difference in the health and wellbeing of workers as well as provide employers with a key component of their health, safety and risk management efforts,” said Tracy Parsons, CIH, Administrative Program Manager at ABIH. “Although many CIHs are employed by government agencies, academic institutions and large corporations, many others offer contract services to smaller companies who do not have a CIH on staff. ABIH offers a search function on our website that allows people to search for a CIH Consultant in their geographical area.”
To learn more about the American Board of Industrial Hygiene or the accredited CIH program, please email abih@ABIH.org , visit www.ABIH.org or call (517) 321-2638.
About the American Board of Industrial Hygiene
Since 1960, ABIH, a not-for-profit corporation, has been the world’s largest, premier organization for certifying professionals in the practice of industrial hygiene. ABIH is responsible for ensuring high-quality certification including education, experience, examination, certification maintenance and ethics enforcement. Currently, more than 6700 people are certified to use the CIH designation.
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ABIH- Contact Information
- Paul Cochrane
- President
- Cochrane & Associates, LLC
- Contact via E-mail
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