The Occupational Health and Safety Profession is a profession in which individuals (The Occupational Health and Safety Professionals) are responsible for analyzing operating procedures, materials, machines and conditions at work sites to determine risks of injury, occupational disease and damage to property and equipment. Safety and Health professionals develop measures for controlling workplace hazards and limiting financial loss.

Professionals may specialize in transportation, construction, environmental problems, product design, insurance loss control, fire and property protection, and the health care industry.

Major Work Activity

• Developing safety programs to prevent accidents & Near miss
• Inspecting commercial, government, and industrial work sites
• Examining plans for new buildings and machines and developing the risk assessment matrix
• Conducting safety and health audits
• Preparing reports
• Investigating accidents
• Keeping up with the field
• Communication skills key component of job
• Monitoring (air/noise/heat); use of PPE

Occupational Health and Safety Professional also help keep workers safe by indulging in activities like BMI checks to help workforce maintain safe weight, psychological first aid, and also talks to keep them safe at home.

However, the occupational Safety and Health profession is a very important profession which requires just more than the knowledge to practice, but also passion to help others.

OSH Practice Settings

The settings in which OSH professionals practice are varied, but most can be classified into five major categories:

• industry and industry-like settings, including those associated with the military and government agencies,
• consulting firms including the insurance industry and some specialized government units,
• government regulatory agencies,
• educational and research institutions, and
• hospitals and outpatient clinics (nurses and physicians).

The traditional setting for much of OSH practice is in medium-sized or large industries where the OSH professional serves in a line function and addresses occupational health issues for a well-defined set of workers. The role is rather similar whether the industry is petroleum refining, a large bank, or an aircraft carrier. In all cases, the OSH professional focuses on the particular hazards of the industry and methods of their evaluation, control, and management. In some cases the OSH professional is assigned to a particular facility, and in others he or she operates from a corporate center.

An increasing number of OSH professionals work for consulting firms that provide OSH services to various segments of industry and government on a contractual basis. This includes those who work for insurance carriers that provide consulting services to the company's various clients. In some cases these relationships are stable and allow the development of industry-specific expertise, and in other cases the OSH practice is very broadly based and varied. Consulting practice presents considerable challenges in influencing internal corporate culture and mounting stable prevention activities from outside the company. Nevertheless, many companies are outsourcing OSH functions, particularly OM and industrial hygiene functions. The current mode of practice for OM physicians, for example, has changed from one that is dominated by physicians who are hired by large corporations to one in which the majority of OM physicians practice in the private sector as clinicians. As the size of the U.S. manufacturing sector has been reduced, the number of local work site-based physicians has also decreased. Instead, increasing numbers of OM physicians have established practices in hospital- and clinic-based health maintenance organizations and group practices or in private solo practice. Several companies have purchased individual clinics and have formed extensive networks of clinics that specialize in OM. An additional base from which OSH consulting activities are mounted are specialized government units, often linked to regulatory agencies, that assist small employers in addressing occupational and environmental health hazards.

The principal federal regulatory agency that makes extensive use of OSH expertise is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the U.S. Department of Labor. In addition, various states enforce the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Act of 1970 (OSHAct) under agreements with OSHA, and various local jurisdictions undertake regulatory activities. Other industry-specific regulatory programs that call on OSH skills and training, notably, in the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) of the U.S. Department of Labor and the Nuclear Regulatory Agency. The U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Energy, which are self-regulating, also employ substantial numbers of OSH professionals, both in-house and as consultants and contractors. The goal of workplace inspections in all of these settings is to verify that the employer has accurately assessed and effectively controlled the hazards faced by its employees and to ensure that the workplace is in compliance with the appropriate regulations. The educational efforts of compliance officers are limited to informal on-site discussions to help employers understand the hazards and regulations that affect their workplaces and to inform workers and union representatives of employees' rights under the law.

Research in or directly relevant to the OSH field is carried out in government laboratories, notably, those of NIOSH, universities, and the private sector and in institutions affiliated with organized labor. Researchers are often affiliated with departments or units with “occupational safety and health” in their name, but many are not, which makes it difficult to estimate the size and extent of the research enterprise in the field. For example, aerosol science research, which is of great relevance to industrial hygiene practice, is often found in engineering departments in universities, as are many aspects of the control technology that underlie the control of workplace hazards. In contrast to the professional practice of occupational safety, industrial hygiene, OM, and occupational health nursing, many researchers who make important contributions to the field have had no OSH training. Scientists investigating the pathophysiology of cancer, or of asthma, for example, may know little about OSH but nevertheless provide information highly relevant for occupational risk assessments. This separation carries over into graduate degree programs in the field, as will be discussed below, in which the curriculum has both a highly structured technical component and a component that relates to the professional aspects of the field, including, for example, the federal regulatory system or the workers' compensation insurance system. University faculty members who contribute to OSH teaching programs also reflect this separation. Some have training and experience in the field, and others have technical knowledge of great relevance to the field but little professional OSH experience. The latter individuals often come from backgrounds in chemistry or engineering or they are physicians or nurses specializing in fields such as epidemiology, toxicology, respiratory disease, and dermatology. It is very important to foster the application of a wide variety of specialties and fields of knowledge to OSH problems. NIOSH's National Occupational Research Agenda illustrates the breadth and depth of the interdisciplinary research needs that must be addressed (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1998).

In addition to teaching at the college or university level, a number of OSH professionals hold other positions with a significant teaching component, either in continuing education for working professionals or in programs aimed at orienting management personnel or workers themselves to the field. Maintenance of certification in any of the four traditional OSH professions requires participation in continuing education courses, which provides incentives for developing courses and recruiting qualified instructors to meet this demand.

How to Become an Occupational Health and Safety Officer

To qualify as an occupational health and safety professional a training course and a certificate from a professional body is required.

Check out the requirement that is relevant in your location.