History, Mission, Vision

Mission/Vision

Occupational hygiene professionals work as applied scientists to preserve and improve the safety of health and safety in the workplace. They are problem solvers, seeking ways to protect workers and the community from potential health threats while working within fiscal realities and changing priorities. In addition to a strong background in the physical and biological sciences, they bring an interest in legal, administrative and policy issues to their work.

Graduates work in the manufacturing sector, industry, for corporations, insurance companies, and high-tech concerns, food establishments, research facilities and government agencies. Many find employment in health care settings, including hospitals, public health departments, and environmental protection agencies. Still more options exist with public utilities, educational settings colleges and universities, transportation, construction, natural resource departments, consulting firms and cruise ships. The program also prepares students for graduate study in public health and other related disciplines. Industrial occupational hygiene and safety majors learn to anticipate, recognize, evaluate and control workplace factors that affect health, comfort and productivity. The program also introduces students to policy issues critical to worker health and safety. With new technologies emerging rapidly, industrial occupational hygienists have become increasingly valuable in safeguarding the health and wellbeing of workers, the community and the environment.

Why choose this program

Majoring in industrial hygiene occupational hygiene and safety (or the related field of environmental health science) may be right for you if you want to protect employees in the workplace; preserve the quality of air, water, shelter and land; are interested in enforcing environmental and public health laws; are concerned with making workers’ jobs as free from hazards as possible; and want to work to ensure a sustainable, high quality of life for future generations. Occupational hygienists and safety professionals deal equally with people, equipment and data early in their careers, and gradually tend to deal more with people and data only in their later careers.