Gerberding's out... Obama plans to create jobs... What does this mean for NIOSH? OH/IH professionals?
Julie Gerberding resigned as chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week. CDC chief operating officer William Gimson will take the reins as acting director after President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in next Tuesday. What do you think this may mean for NIOSH?
Additionally, Aaron Trippler, AIHA's GA Director, noted that the Sunday Washington Post mentioned how Obama is going to create over 4 million jobs -- over 600,000 in construction and over 400,000 in manufacturing. What do you think that means for practicing IH/OH professionals?
Comments
Depends on what employers are able to get those jobs. In manufacturing, if its all small industrial park type businesses, I'm not seeing a lot of additional work. For construction, its going to depend on how the owner sets up the bid specs and what are the owner's explicite desires for the contractor to provide professional safety support services to the job. There are pockets in this country where owners are highly proactive and require contractors to utilize CIHs and/or CSPs on their projects. The pockets are small and centered on very large commercial and public works projects. Maybe we need to find a way to make those pockets larger by demonstrating value ($) on "side-by-side" projects (one with a CSP/CIH and one without) and communicating that value ($)to owners and contractors.
Posted by: M McGowan | January 13, 2009 11:00 PM