The first thing we noticed in this year’s annual White Paper EHS State of the Nation reader survey was age. It could be that morbid mindset that seems to settle in with age: the older you get the more you tend to check ages. Take to reading the obits. Anyway, how does the number 54 strike you? That’s the median age of survey respondents.
It puts EHS pros fairly high up there in the “thinning and graying” ranks. Consider: the median age in the U.S. labor force is 41. Median age for physicians: 49. Median age for chemists: 47 and falling fast. Median age for mathematicians: 40. Median age for journalists: 41 (Little wonder the idea of Botox® treatment flashes to mind when I amble around the corridors of HQ). Median age for a construction worker: 40. No state in the union has a median age for public school teachers above 50. Try out these medians for teachers: CA (43); NY (41); PA (43); AZ (44); Texas (43).