School of Health Sciences - Occupational Health Science
Undergraduate Major - Background

What do Occupational Safety & Health/Industrial Hygiene Graduates do?

Graduates of this program are capable of anticipating and assessing workplace hazards, designing control strategies based on scientific and engineering principles, implementing safety and health programs, communicating with the public, and interacting with governmental regulatory bodies. To investigate health hazards, industrial hygienists combine technical expertise with "people-oriented" skills. Basically, they are “disease detectives” who use their skills to track down occupational hazards then provide solutions to mitigate these hazards. Currently, about 10,000 industrial hygienists nationwide work toward promoting health in the work and community environments. As the number of potentially hazardous chemicals and work situations increase and regulations become more complex, more people will be needed in this exciting and rewarding profession. Industrial Hygienists typically advance in their careers by taking on more responsibilities beyond industrial hygiene.  These responsibilities typically include the areas of safety, ergonomics, and environmental health.