Occupational Safety and Health Training Project Grant in Industrial Hygiene

Details

• Personal Author:
  Figueroa CE
• Description:
  The Industrial Hygiene (IH) Program at the University of North Alabama (UNA) was created in the mid 1970's in response to the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. The UNA IH Program is one of four ABET-accredited programs at a baccalaureate level in the USA. It is one of the first undergraduate programs of IH established in the nation and the only one in the State of Alabama. The program offers the degree of a Bachelor of Science (or Bachelor of Arts) with a major in IH. The IH curriculum is designed to prepare professionals for the comprehensive practice of IH. It is broad in scope and includes complementary education in the allied sciences of safety and environmental health. It also contains a very important component of chemistry courses, and offers, without the need of any extra coursework, the option of a double major in industrial hygiene and general chemistry. The objectives set for the UNA IH Program under the NIOSH Training Project Grant (TPG) during the cycle 2009-2012 were twofold: maintain a healthy level of enrollment and offer an academic program of quality that addresses the current and emerging needs of the profession. Enrollment in the program has remained steady over the years with an upward trend in this three-year cycle (2009-2012) over the previous cycle (2004-2009). With the provision of NIOSH scholarships, a number of high-caliber students have been attracted to the IH field. The level of enrollment has necessitated the consistent offering of IH courses and yielded viable graduation outputs (average of 7.3 graduates per year). In this three-year cycle, the average enrollment of the UNA IH Program was 35.3 students per semester with a range of 30 to 38 students. Stable enrollment at the current level is indicative of great success when records that preceded the TPG award are taken into account (14 students per semester in 2000; 38 in 2012). During this cycle, the Program has graduated 21 students. Placement records show that 15 of these students are employed in the field of occupational health and safety (OH&S). Among these UNA graduates, two are members of under-represented minorities. The UNA IH Program was evaluated for re-accreditation by the Applied Science Accreditation Commission (ASAC) of ABET, Inc. during the year 2008-2009. The evaluation was outcome-based and yielded no deficiencies or weaknesses (two concerns and three observations). The support of the NIOSH TPG was very influential for the success of this evaluation. The most relevant changes elicited by the ABET evaluation were the additions of a capstone project course and a component of physical agents to the curriculum. Content of IH courses continue evolving to reflect new trends of professional practice. Topics such green technology, leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) and Bayesian statistics have been incorporated into the curriculum. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Education Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Health Safety Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Curriculum Development Industrial Health Programs Industrial Hygiene Programs Occupational Health Programs Occupational Safety Programs Training Effectiveness Training Grants
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  Alabama ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-19
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20054280
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2019-100554
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, T02-OH-008624, 2012 Sep; :1-19
• Contact Point Address:
  Crescente E. Figueroa, Ph.D., CIH, Department of Chemistry and Industrial Hygiene University of North Alabama, Florence, Alabama 35632
• Email:
  cefigueroa@una.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• Performing Organization:
  University of North Alabama, Florence
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20270630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e8493981028d794c6773b702b9ebd89ed57233d1a577793a44b2c603fd5b95f5e9a0997c31cb57089bfa6263e4c62a8bf3d52d80ae2b3c1f7b658f667609731e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/218806/cdc_218806_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 303.20 KB ]