as a standard for the profession – a guideline that uplifts the profession in a consistent and uniform manner. The overall expectation associated with the new codes is that priority will be given to health and safety interests related to the protection of people. Much like the Hippocratic Oath associated with the medical field, industrial hygienists should strive to “abstain from doing harm” (Primum non nocere) and to hold the people we protect in the highest regard.
Internationally, the IOHA Code of Ethics is intended to cover all occupational/industrial hygiene associations who are members of IOHA. It prescribes (i) the code of ethics for IOHA Board members, and (ii) the general principles expected in the code of ethics of those associations who comprise the members of IOHA (www.ioha.net).
5 Industrial Hygiene Today: Currently Defining Occupational and Industrial Hygiene
Given the developments and evolution of the practice of industrial hygiene over time, it is informative to take the available information on the history and current and emerging practice of industrial hygiene and consider the current definition of the scope of practice for occupational and industrial hygiene.
There are multiple definitions of Occupational and Industrial Hygiene but the most commonly quoted are found below.
The AIHA defines industrial hygiene as the “…science and practice devoted to the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of those environmental factors or stresses, arising in or from the workplace, that may cause sickness, impaired health and well‐being, or significant discomfort among workers or among citizens of the community” (https://www.aiha.org/about-ih/Pages/default.aspx).
The ABIH that administers IH certification programs defines industrial hygiene as: “the science of protecting and enhancing the health and safety of people at work and in their communities” (http://abih.org/content/ih-defined).
FIGURE 3 British Occupational Hygiene Society workplace health triangle.
The IOHA defines occupational hygiene as: “the discipline of anticipating, recognizing, evaluating and controlling health hazards in the working environment with the objective of protecting worker health and well‐being and safeguarding the community at large” (https://ioha.net/faq).
By any definition, however, industrial hygiene is an applied science encompassing the application of knowledge from a multidisciplinary profession, including the sciences and professions of chemistry, engineering, biology, mathematics, medicine, physics, toxicology, and other specialties. Industrial hygiene meets the criteria for the definition as a science since it brings together in context and practice an organized body of knowledge necessary for the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of health stresses in the work environment.
It is clear that occupational hygienists often have to have established links to the occupational medicine aspects of their organizations. This includes physicians, occupational nurses, and others who treat work‐related injuries and illness or who may be involved in return to work program or workplace accommodation decisions or other work‐related matters. This relationship and others are illustrated in the figure below which was developed by the British Occupational Hygiene Association. (https://app.croneri.co.uk/feature-articles/navigating-workplace-health-triangle) (see Figure 3). Figure 3 also demonstrates the increased emphasis and understanding of TWH and ensuring the health of workers within the context of their full lives, not just their livelihood.
6 CONCLUSIONS
In the first edition of this book, Frank Patty's vision for the key aspects of successful industrial hygiene practice included: “(i) competent persons in health and safety maintenance departments; (ii) managerial interest and appreciation of the benefits to be derived from health and safety work; and (iii) teamwork, camaraderie, and cooperative efforts among industrial hygiene, medical, and safety personnel” (1). Today, the industrial hygiene profession continues to embrace this vision. While industrial hygiene has traditionally focused on identifying and controlling health risks from a wide variety of workplace stressors, more recently, industrial hygiene professionals have taken on collateral duties in the areas of safety, environmental protection, product stewardship, sustainability, community and public health, and many other areas. This work is concerned with a wide variety of health and safety issues not related merely to “exposures”. Much of this integration has come about either because of regulatory overlap or the need for organizational support staff to be functional across a variety of areas. Further, the diverse training and experience in the field of industrial hygiene can open the door to a very wide variety of other opportunities for a management track or further specialization beyond the traditional exposure assessment focus. Industrial hygienists are especially well suited to an expansion of technical competence and skills given their academic training and problem‐solving approaches to complex technical issues. There are many classically trained prominent industrial hygienists who have become high‐level senior Directors or Vice Presidents in areas such as Sustainability, EHS, Product Stewardship, New Product Development, Government Sponsored Research, and many other diverse areas.
There are a wide variety of new horizons for occupational/industrial hygienists either within or closely aligned with classic occupational/industrial hygiene. While many hygienists retain the classic “exposure and risk assessment” approach, some do not. For example, aligned fields include running an industrial hygiene laboratory, process safety management, managing hazardous waste site remediation (community assessment), and product life cycle assessments (includes much more than exposures such as resource use, impact on the environment, and resource recovery). There are many areas in which the industrial hygienist can contribute to advancing the profession and the health of workers.
So while the profession remains rooted in the basic health and environmental sciences, new challenges utilizing this training and experience continue to develop. As workplaces change with the growth of robotics and other new manufacturing technologies such as digital printers, the hygienist role in health and safety of the workplace and communities will continue to grow and evolve.
Bibliography
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