State of the EHS Nation

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The American Industrial Hygiene Association® (AIHA) yesterday announced the recipients of the 2015 AIHA awards, which honor individuals who provide significant contributions to the industrial hygiene and occupational and environmental health and safety profession.

In an age where academic degrees may be literally printed from home, some experts are calling for the development of minimum requirements to accredit academic programs in the occupational safety and health (OSH) profession. 

According to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey, overall, income figures, budget resources and staffing levels, job satisfaction and job security show much more stability, and in a number of cases growth, than reported in ISHN State of the Nation surveys 5-10-15 years ago.

According to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey, much EHS programmatic work in 2015 centers on: 1) building and/or maintaining a safety culture for organizations (54%); 2) finding and fixing workplace hazards (48%); 3) conducting risk assessments and risk prioritization (43%); and 4) tracking safety and health performance measures other than counting injuries and illnesses (38%).

The maturity and evolution of the EHS profession (going beyond the traditional compliance mindset) is evident in the most serious hazards pros say they will contend with in 2015, according to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey.

The most pressing issue facing EHS professionals in the new year, according to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey, is an age-old challenge that has been reported in ISHN State of the Nation surveys since the 1980s – dealing with the safety and health attitudes and behaviors of line employees. Consider:

There’s certainly no lack of challenges facing the EHS profession now and in the coming years, according to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey. Almost four in ten (39%) of ISHN subscribers say contending with an expanding workload is one of the biggest challenges they face on the job.

One factor behind the favorable job satisfaction found in the EHS ranks, according to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey, could come down to the bottom line – salaries. Fifty-five percent of respondents expect “slightly higher” incomes in 2015, and 6% expect “much higher” salaries.