The three major disciplines of the environmental, health, and safety (EHS) field are environment, industrial hygiene, and safety. Create a PowerPoint presentation that provides an overview of each of the three disciplines. Include each of the following elements:
summary of the responsibilities for the discipline,
evaluation of types of hazards addressed by the discipline,

description of how industrial hygiene practices relate to safety and health programs,
description of how industrial hygiene practices relate to environmental programs,   
evaluation of types of control methods commonly used by the discipline,
interactions with the other two disciplines, and
major organizations associated with the discipline.
UNIT II STUDY GUIDE
Environmental, Health, and
Safety Program Interactions
Course Learning Outcomes for Unit II
Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:
3. Relate industrial hygiene practices to environmental health and safety programs.
3.1 Describe how industrial hygiene practices relate to safety programs.
3.2 Describe how industrial hygiene practices relate to environmental programs.
Course/Unit
Learning Outcomes
3.1
3.2
Learning Activity
Unit Lesson
Document: Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP), Council on
Certification of Health, Environment and Safety Technologists (CCHEST)
and American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH)
Webpage: Recommended Practices For Safety and Health Programs
Unit II PowerPoint Presentation
Unit Lesson
Document: Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP), Council on
Certification of Health, Environment and Safety Technologists (CCHEST)
and American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH)
Webpage: Recommended Practices For Safety and Health Programs
Unit II PowerPoint Presentation
Required Unit Resources
In order to access the following resources, click the links below.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2010, February). Board of Certified Safety Professionals
(BCSP), Council on Certification of Health, Environment and Safety Technologists (CCHEST) and
American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH). https://www.osha.gov/alliances/bcsp-cchest-abih/bcspcchest-abih
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2016, October). Recommended practices for safety and
health programs. https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/OSHA3885.pdf
Unit Lesson
The practice of industrial hygiene does not exist in a vacuum. Most work locations must also attend to safety
and environmental issues. These three fields often overlap, both in practice and in how they fit within a
facility’s organizational structure. How they fit will depend greatly on the size of the company. Most small or
midsize companies do not typically have a full-time industrial hygienist on staff; therefore, the safety officer or
environmental engineer may also be asked to manage the facility’s industrial hygiene needs. This
arrangement will require the employee to know at least some industrial hygiene basics. If a small facility is
part of a larger corporation, the corporate staff’s responsibilities may include industrial hygiene services to its
remote facilities. Because the corporate industrial hygienist may only visit the facility one or two times a year,
the safety officer or environmental engineer will be very important in identifying and providing information to
the corporate industrial hygiene staff.
In some instances, workers’ compensation insurance carriers may provide industrial hygiene services to
facilities covered under a policy. Under this arrangement, the safety officer or environmental engineer
provides information to the insurance carrier’s representative prior to an industrial hygiene survey. The third
OSH 4303, Industrial Hygiene
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alternative is for the facility to use an industrial hygiene consulting company. This
also require
substantial
UNITwill
x STUDY
GUIDE
input from the safety officer or environmental engineer.
Title
Most small or midsize companies have an in-house safety function. The need for a full-time safety staff at
these facilities is greater than for the industrial hygiene function because there is typically a daily need to
address safety concerns. However, because of the issues discussed above about utilizing outside industrial
hygiene services, the in-house safety officer should have at least some working knowledge of the industrial
hygiene field.
As with the safety function, small or midsize companies will typically have an in-house environmental function.
Local staffing for the environmental function at a facility is important because environmental issues occur
frequently. The environmental staff is less often tasked with providing oversight of industrial hygiene functions
than the safety staff, but some facilities will have all three functions addressed by the same in-house staff.
When this is the case, the three functions are often combined into one department called environmental,
health, and safety (EHS); safety, health, and environment (SHE); or health, safety, and environment (HSE).
The most common organizational structure has the EHS function reporting to either the human resources
(HR) department or the plant manager. In rare instances, the safety function reports directly to the production
manager. This organizational structure is not recommended because it can lead to conflicts of interest
between the safety function and production. Larger corporations will usually have an EHS staff that provides
services to remote facilities on an as-needed basis, with annual facility visits to audit the quality of the EHS
programs. Many consulting firms will offer industrial hygiene safety and environmental services, making it
easier to develop professional working relationships between the two organizations.
While there are some differences between the three functions, there are also some overlapping functions,
particularly between safety and industrial hygiene. The industrial hygienist and safety functions work to
identify hazards, evaluate risks, and implement controls to protect the health and safety of workers. The main
differences between the two functions involve the hazards they address. The industrial hygienist function
primarily deals with health hazards, including chemical, biological, and physical health hazards. The safety
function primarily addresses hazards that may cause traumatic injury or death, including falls, explosions, and
electrical hazards. The environmental function deals with hazards affecting the environment, including
releases to the air, water, and soil. However, many of the hazards identified by one of the functions can also
have an effect on the other two. For example, a release of a toxic gas would impact the health of workers in
the area but could also increase the risk of an explosion and affect the environment outside the facility.
Another difference in the three functions is how practitioners usually enter the field. Smaller facilities typically
choose someone with little safety education who is already working at the facility to be a safety officer. This
employee may then enroll in courses to gain a broader knowledge of the safety field. Some students enrolled
in the OSH program at CSU fit this category. It is uncommon for an individual with no industrial hygiene
education who is working at a facility to become an industrial hygienist or for an individual with no education in
environmental sciences to become the environmental engineer. The requirements for certification by the
Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP) and the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH) make
clear these differences.
To sit for the certified safety professional (CSP) examination, the BCSP requires a bachelor’s degree and at
least four years of experience (with safety being at least 50% at the professional level) and one of several
qualifying credentials (BCSP, n.d.).
The requirements to sit for the certified industrial hygiene (CIH) examination are much more restrictive. The
applicant must have at least a four-year bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college or university in
biology, physics, engineering, industrial hygiene, or safety, with a specified number of hours in science, math,
engineering, or science-based technology. The applicant must also have at least four years of professional
industrial hygiene practice and two written professional references (ABIH, n.d.).
Upcoming units in this course will introduce you to the concepts of industrial hygiene in a more detailed
manner. If you have experience in the safety function, you will able to compare the basic principles of
industrial hygiene to your work in the safety field.
OSH 4303, Industrial Hygiene
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References
UNIT x STUDY GUIDE
Title
American Board of Industrial Hygiene. (n.d.). Eligibility for certification. www.abih.org/becomecertified/eligibility
Board of Certified Safety Professionals. (n.d.). Safety certifications at a glance.
http://www.bcsp.org/Certifications/Safety-Certifications-At-A-Glance
Suggested Unit Resources
In order to access the following resource, click the link below.
This article discusses what employers expect from master’s level industrial hygienist
Brosseau, L. M., Raynor, P. C., & Lungu, C. (2005). Employers’ expectations of knowledge and skills of
master’s- trained industrial hygienists. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 2(1), 1-7.
https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?auth=CAS&url=http://www-tandfonlinecom.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/doi/pdf/10.1080/15459620590894733
Learning Activities (Nongraded)
Nongraded Learning Activities are provided to aid students in their course of study. You do not have to submit
them. If you have questions, contact your instructor for further guidance and information.
The American Board of Industrial Hygiene oversees the certification of industrial hygienists (CIH). Go to
www.abih.org and review the requirements for sitting for the CIH examination. The Board of Certified Safety
Professionals (BCSP) oversees the certification of safety professionals. Go to www.bcsp.org and review the
requirements for sitting for the Associate Safety Professional (ASP) and Certified Safety Professional (CSP)
examinations. The Institute of Hazardous Materials Management oversees one of the more common
certifications for environmental professionals. Go to www.ihmm.org and review the requirements to sit for the
Certified Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM) examination.
OSH 4303, Industrial Hygiene
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