How important is industrial hygiene?
Industrial Hygiene is both a science and art devoted to the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, prevention, and control of those environmental factors or stresses arising in or from the workplace that may cause sickness, impaired health, well-being, or significant discomfort among workers or citizens of the community.
More than half of our nearly 8,500 members of the Association are certified industrial hygienists (CIHs), and many hold other professional designations. Their primary focus is to keep people healthy and safe in their workspaces through applied science.
Consider that in the United States:
- Every day, approximately 275 people die from occupational injuries and illnesses in the United States alone.
- Approximately 95,000 workers died in 2017 from occupational diseases.
- About 3.5 million workers suffered occupational injuries or illnesses in 2017 alone. These were just the reported injuries and illnesses – the actual total numbers may be even higher.
- 5,250: The number of recorded workplace fatalities from injuries in the U.S. in 2018. This was a 2% increase from 2017.
And consider that globally:
- Each year, approximately 2.7 million workers die from occupational injuries and illnesses.
- One worker dies from occupational causes every 11 seconds.
Sources:
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2018
- AFL-CIO. Death on the Job, The Toll of Neglect: A National and State-by-State Profile of Worker Safety and Health in the United States (2019)
- ILO, 2013; WHO, 2013 and 2016; Armed Conflict, 2016 + Homicide, 2012 (WHO) + Terrorism, 2016 (Statista)