EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was featured on the ISHN website back on May 20, 2000. We thought it would be interesting to present it to you today, some nineteen years later, as a means of comparing the occupational safety and health profession today with the way it was perceived by the people in it nearly two decades ago. Additional note: We've changed the name of the American Society of Safety Engineers to its current moniker, American Society of Safety Professionals, in order to avoid confusion.
Home with a cold, Alan could elaborate on his career musings. (Many safety and health professionals interviewed for this article cannot be fully identified because their private career plans could threaten their current employment.) A 40ish baby boomer, Alan began his career as an industrial hygienist. Now his field responsibilities extend into safety and the environment, and he no longer practices "pure" industrial hygiene- monitoring noise levels and airborne contaminants, designing exposure controls, and the like.