What is Safety and Hygiene?
Within the Industry: The art and science of anticipating, identifying, assessing, and managing environmental elements or stressors that arise in or from the workplace and have the potential to cause illness, poor health and well-being, or severe discomfort for employees or members of the community. Workers in the discipline examine risks such as chemical exposure, physical hazards (ex, noise exposure or radiation), ergonomic stressors, and biological agents and then develop approaches to control the risks. The outcome is to protect the health and well-being of all workers while increasing safety and productivity.
Why Pick Industrial Hygiene and Safety as Your Career?
1. Big Need in Many Fields
The demand for industrial hygiene and safety specialists has skyrocketed as a result of stricter regulations and more attention to worker health. The demand for industrial hygiene and safety specialists has skyrocketed as a result of stricter regulations and more attention to worker health. Fields like making things, building, oil and gas, medicine, healthcare, digging, and even tech companies need these pros to follow laws and keep their workers safe.
Government groups like OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), and NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) also hire experts to create safety rules, check workplaces, and help make policies.
2. Diverse and Dynamic Work Environment
A varied and changing work Environment An industrial hygiene professional experiences no two days alike. One day, you may collect air quality samples in a manufacturing facility; the next day, you might be developing training programs to teach employees about chemical use or PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). The different activities of a job in industrial hygiene make it engaging and also mentally stimulating. Additionally, you will work in a variety of settings ranging from laboratories and hospitals to oil rigs and company boardrooms. This career's dynamic and ever-changing nature aids in your ongoing education and professional development.
3. Positive Social Impact
The 'unsung heroes' of workplace wellness are often members of the safety and industrial hygiene teams. Their work is directly related to the reduction of workplace injuries, occupational disease, and even deaths. By mitigating health and safety risks, they set up and protect a workplace that promotes positive morale, lowers absenteeism, and improves productivity. People with an interest in public health may find this is a unique public service career because they protect the lifeblood of every economy, its workforce.
4. Occupation within the health sector:
Occupational dangers associated with income and career advancement are demonstrated by the fact that the median national wage is substantially higher than the median salary obtained in the United States. However, occupational health and safety professionals require experience and higher qualifications to expect high-performance pay, especially in riskier but lucrative fields, such as oil & gas or pharmaceuticals. The career path is only meant to have a couple of successive levels. You might begin as a junior hygienist or technician and progress up the ranks to become a Safety Manager, Health and Safety Director, or even, at the corporate level, Vice President of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS).
5. Global Opportunities:
Safety in the workplace is a global concern, and it means that safety professionals are not bound to one country or part of the world. Industrial hygienists can work globally with the proper certifications to enter regions with developing industries or continuous developing regulatory environments.
WHO - Since nearly 60% of the inhabitants of the world are employed, it is crucial that all employees possess the universal right to a healthy and secure work environment. Because such a large part of our lives is taken up by work, it is obvious that occupational health and safety assume the nature of a public health issue.
Occupational health involves the prevention of occupational risk and the promotion of workers' physical, mental, and social health.
Risks can result in occupational illnesses that impair employees' capacity to engage in the workforce and raise the prevalence of chronic illnesses. Based on estimates from the ILO and World Health Organization, 1.88 million people died in 2016 as a result of work-related illnesses and injuries.
ILO : The International Labour Organization (ILO) is instrumental in promoting industrial hygiene and safety. The ILO undertakes a range of initiatives to establish global standards and provide advice and support for member states to implement good occupational safety and health (OSH) practices. The ILO considers a safe and healthy working environment as a basic right of decent work.
UN Global Compact :
Businesses can pledge to and report on their efforts to apply universal sustainability principles, such as those pertaining to industrial hygiene and safety, through the UN Global Compact. It urges companies to uphold labor rights, which includes establishing safe and healthy working environments, but it doesn't directly target industrial hygiene and safety professionals.
6. Leadership and Teamwork
Work together with doctors, engineers, HR, and management.
Build your skills in teamwork and leadership in different group settings.
The conventional function of a safety manager is not sufficient for a safety leader. While the latter might concentrate on upholding laws and guidelines, a safety leader encourages and inspires staff members to put safety first in all facets of their work.
7. Field and Office Balance
A mix of working outside and planning in the office.
Being in different places makes the job more fun and varied.
For occupational hygiene and safety initiatives to be effective, fieldwork and office duties must be balanced. While office work is on analysis, reporting, and strategic planning, fieldwork includes evaluating risks, gathering information, and putting control measures in place. A good program must strike a balance between providing extensive, data-driven decision-making and in-depth practical experience.
Challenges and Rewards :
Obstacles and Benefits Like every profession, industrial hygiene and safety have their obstacles. Professionals may find themselves in hazardous working conditions, working with difficult employees or management, or find themselves in high-pressure situations involving the safety of a human life. Yet, those are counter-balanced with tremendous benefits — personally and professionally. There is great satisfaction in knowing that your efforts may have, very literally, saved a life or prevented an accident. Gaining the respect and confidence of both the employer and the employees is also extremely valuable. These professionals must continually keep current with developments in industrial hygiene technologies and practices to protect the health and safety of workers. Many times, they must also work around management or employees who do not consider safety a priority. Even with those obstacles, the rewards for the safety professional's effort to create a safer workplace are priceless, most notably regarding injury and illness prevention but also in establishing an organizational culture of wellness and respect. Having made a difference in someone's health and welfare is certainly rewarding in the field of industrial hygiene and safety.
