Visualize a football stadium with a 100,000 capacity. Assume half of the seats are empty and everyone is sitting on one side of the stadium. That group represents the approximate number of occupational safety and health (OS&H) professionals in the U.S. workforce, according to a report commissioned by NIOSH and released in November 2011.1 The nine disciplines that comprise the OS&H workforce are shown in Box 1.(SEE SLIDESHOW)
When we visualize data in the NIOSH funded report, crunch numbers, and acquire additional data, who OS&H pros are just doesn't add up. For example, there are about 12,000 active CSPs according to BCSP and about 6,500 active CIHs according to ABIH. If we believe the report, then nearly one of every two safety pros is a CSP and nearly all IHs hold the CIH. This is not correct.