On September 1, the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) signed the Seoul Declaration at the 5th China International Forum in Beijing, China, according to a press release. As a signatory, AIHA supports the Declaration in the implementation of core principles and encourages other individuals, organizations, and agencies to join the movement in its efforts to promote the health and safety of work environments worldwide.

The Seoul Declaration on Safety and Health at Work was adopted in June 2008 at the XVII World Congress on Safety and Health at Work by 50 key decision-makers from around the world. The Declaration was designed as a blueprint for constructing a global ethos of safety and health at work and to promote a preventative safety and health culture and assert the rights of employees to work in a safe environment.

“The Seoul Declaration upholds as a fundamental human right access to a safe and healthy working environment for all. It further considers healthy and safe communities and work places as crucial to economic and social development,” says AIHA President Michael T. Brandt, DrPh, CIH, PMP. “These beliefs are central to AIHA’s mission and values and to those of our membership and profession as a whole.”

AIHA is one of only a few North American organizations to sign the Seoul Declaration.

More information about the Seoul Declaration can be found at www.seouldeclaration.org/en.