Graduate Education in Industrial Hygiene: Recent History and Prospects

Abstract

Abstract Industrial hygiene is the recognition, evaluation, and control of health hazards in the workplace. Despite a long history in Europe, industrial hygiene is a 20th century discipline in the United States. The first recognized practitioner was Alice Hamilton, a physician who wrote extensively of her studies characterizing and attempting to minimize exposure to lead and other hazards in the first half of this century. The establishment of the Office of Industrial Hygiene in 1914 at the U.S. Public Health Service prompted significant growth in the number of industrial hygienists, but support for their education was realized only with the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. The education of industrial hygienists in the United States began in 1922 at Harvard. By 1973 there were nine graduate programs; there are 45 today. In Washington state, graduate education in industrial hygiene began at the University of Washington (UW) in 1971, although research activities had been going on for more than 10 years previously. The federally funded Educational Resource Centers, one of which is at UW, have had a major impact on the production of graduate industrial hygienists. About 350 per year are graduated nationwide; about 12 are PhD recipients. In the future, the need for graduate industrial hygienists will continue to grow as industrial processes evolve and regulatory activity tries to keep pace. However, the supply of qualified professionals will fall seriously short of the need or the demand, until educational programs in the United States can attract the support necessary to expand. In addition, programs must assure that their curricula are designed to provide both the breadth and depth needed in the several subject areas underlying industrial hygiene practice, and that they are attractive to well-prepared undergraduates in the sciences and in engineering. These challenges require effective communication and cooperation among the academic, practitioner, and government communities.