President’s Message
IH Core Competencies
in a Changing World
BY MICHAEL T. BRANDT, AIHA® PRESIDENT
Thirty years ago employers hired IHs
from recognized graduate programs or
applicants with science or engineering
degrees. But as baby boomers leave the
work force in droves, nearly 50 percent
of the existing pool of health and safety
professionals will soon retire. Where will
employers turn for educated IHs when
fewer students are graduating with degrees in IH? How should our profession
define the core competencies needed to
practice as an IH and grow professionally into influential decision-making
roles within EHS and public health? How
will our professional certification body
recognize this evolution? Will the CIH
remain the “gold standard” of excellence
in these core competencies?
Competition and Demand
For several years the AIHA Board of
Directors has recruited and supported the
development of students and early career
professionals. We have invested in the
Future Leaders Institute, established a
Student and Early Career Professionals
Committee, organized special events and
technical tracks at AIHce, re-established
mentorship programs, and encouraged
participation in local sections and technical committees.
While our investment in early career
professionals and students has certainly
been worthwhile, we are experiencing
stiff competition from other professions.
We see evidence that employers are hiring
unqualified individuals to perform IH-
related work as IH jobs go unfilled, and
this trend is likely to continue. Still, my
colleagues in academia report that the
demand for educated and degreed IHs
remains strong. One measure of the
value employers place on our academic
education in classical industrial hygiene
is the number of former IH students who
are assuming roles in operations, sales,
general management, EHS, and other
nontraditional IH responsibilities. Profes-
sionals who are not constrained by “clas-
sical IH” definition will have more
opportunities to branch into other roles.
But these broadened experiences cannot
come at the expense of the competencies
that have long defined a professional as
an IH.
A Clear Mandate
How can AIHA ensure that the global
need for occupational exposure and risk
management professionals is addressed
by competent individuals who may lack
formal training in industrial hygiene?
First, organizations like AIHA must
be prepared to train and educate technicians, professionals from other disciplines, and non-technical professionals.
Despite our recruitment efforts, we are
not significantly increasing the number
of newcomers to our profession. We
must accept that a broad spectrum of
professionals is developing around the
world, ranging from those with general
awareness of fundamental hygiene
competencies to technicians who, despite a more advanced level of competence, are not able to certify as
industrial hygienists. Future IHs will
very likely be expected to manage and
supervise the training and education of
paraprofessionals.
Second, we need to agree that every
health protection practitioner must learn
basic core competencies. These compe-
tencies are generally reflected in the
ABIH description of the CIH; however,
expansion of some of the CIH subject
matter areas should be considered—for
example, by listing responsibilities that
are being assumed by IHs (sustainability,
product safety, operations, general man-
agement, and others) under each subject
area and broadening requirements for
certification maintenance. These changes
would acknowledge that CIHs include
those who have grown into positions of
influence at the enterprise level and
would allow practicing IHs to see that
professional societies and certification
bodies value these new responsibilities.
These simple changes would help ensure
that the CIH remains the “gold standard”
for our evolving practice of IH.
MichaelT.Brandt,DrPH,CIH,PMP,istechnicalchief
ofstaffforOperationsatLosAlamosNationalLabo-ratoryinLosAlamos,N.M.Hecanbereachedat
(505) 667-1228ormtbrandt@lanl.gov.
