AIHA Guideline Foundation
Principles of Good Practice
For the Occupational Environmental Health and Safety (OEHS) Profession
Download the Complete Principles of Good Practice Sections 1-4
Download Section 1: Intro Only
Download Section 2: Exposure Assessment Strategies
Purpose and Objectives
Principles of Good Practice establish recommended levels of risk management practice and performance based on professional norms, guidelines, standards, regulations, and practices.
The PGP process is an enhancement to worker protection beyond the minimum regulatory and statutory requirements addressing worker health. The PGP outlines a set of practices with supporting documentation that a practitioner can reference to better protect worker health. The PGP will also help drive familiarity with various tools and guidance documents available for use.
The PGP allows for professional judgment and flexibility. There may be other means by which equivalent worker and community risk protection can be delivered. Under certain circumstances, alternate approaches may be more efficient and effective than those in the PGP.
The PGP project will have value that will vary depending upon a practitioner's needs, career stage and level of expertise. For students, it is a set of practices for which they will need to develop skills in order to implement. For early career professionals PGP may look more like a "quick start guide" to putting practices in place. For mid-career, it may serve as a continuous practice improvement guide, and for more experienced professionals it may serve as a refresher, benchmarking, or mentoring guide. The PGP also have value as a communication tool to help convey to an organization's senior management what experts have defined as important practices to safeguard the health of workers and their communities.
- Driving the overall effort to build out a Principles of Good Practice summary of risk-critical practices for all domains of practice.
- Engaging subject matter experts from AIHA volunteer groups (and other sources) to provide input.
- Identifying partnership opportunities for engaging appropriate expert input from groups beyond AIHA (e.g., ACGIH, NIOSH, BGC, IOHA).
- Updating and maintaining the Principles of Good Practice document.
The PGP advisory group addresses such matters as:
Composition of the Advisory Group
The advisory group is comprised of 8 to 10 AIHA members with a range of expertise and experience with IH/OH risk management programs and practices. Members from staff and additional partner organizations may be added as appropriate.
Each member serves for up to a three-year term. Terms are staggered so that as members rotate off, they are replaced with new members. The Advisory Group also has an AIHA Board Liaison appointed by the AIHA President; this individual does not serve as Chair or Vice-Chair of the Advisory Group.
The AIHA GF President selects a Vice-Chair from among those committee members entering their second year of service. The Vice-Chair becomes the Chair in his/her third year of service. Terms commence and end at AIHA Connect.
Principles of Good Practice FAQ
What is the Value and Purpose of the Principles of Good Practice?
The Principles of Good Practice (PGP) initiative was established by the AIHA Guideline Foundation (AIHA GF) to identify industrial hygiene professional practices that are documented, peer reviewed, and applicable to all practitioners around the world. They provide concise guidance on practices that effectively and efficiently manage hazards/risks within the scope and objectives established for a particular PGP area of practice. Their value depends on a practitioner's needs and career stage. For students, it is a set of practices for which they will need to develop knowledge and skills. For early career professionals the PGP provide a "quick start guide" to putting practices in place. For mid-career, they serve as a continuous practice improvement guide; and for more experienced professionals they serve as a refresher, benchmark, or mentoring guide.
The PGP also serve as a communication tool to help convey to an organization’s senior management what IH experts have defined as important practices for efficient and effective risk management. These referenced practices may be sourced from existing AIHA publications and guidance documents as well as other recognized third-party resources such as standards, articles, and regulations. This initiative will raise awareness of those references and help identify gaps and inconsistencies important to the practice of industrial hygiene/occupational hygiene.
What is the PGP Scope and Application?
PGPs assume that compliance with applicable laws, regulations and standards has been achieved. The PGP are meant to be used by professionals to continuously improve their IH practices. The speed of PGP implementation may vary, depending on the resources made available.
Every workplace should have effective IH programs in place to protect workers. The practices contained in the PGP help deliver effective programs, no matter the size or type of the workplace. The PGP allows for professional judgment and flexibility. There may be other means by which equivalent worker and community risk protection can be delivered. Under certain circumstances, alternate approaches may be more efficient and effective than those in the PGP.
The PGPs are not intended for general community / public health. However, they may be useful for IH professionals whose practices go beyond protecting workers to protecting others in the community, either directly or indirectly. Examples include indoor air quality, wildfires, natural disasters, and emergency responses with applications in schools, hospitals, and take-home exposures.
Are There Unintended Risks Associated with the PGP?
No undue concerns have been identified by AIHA legal counsel. Further, the AIHA legal counsel contend there is no increased liability to AIHA or its members from the PGP project as compared to the liability risks posed by any other AIHA publications, guidance documents, courses, or other products. The AIHA Board of Directors and staff are aligned and in agreement with this assessment.
Why So Many Recent Changes Regarding the PGP Initiative?
Changes have been made to the PGP documents over time as part of the initiative’s commitment to continuous improvement and keeping the PGP documents evergreen. Changes include:
- Changing the name of the initiative from Standards of Care to Principles of Good Practice to better reflect its purpose.
- Renaming “Best Practice” to “Enhanced Practice”.
- Replacing Appendix A in the charter document with the "PGP Documentation Process" to ensure that the roles and responsibilities of volunteer groups are clearly articulated.
- Replacing the term “soft skills” with “people skills”.
- Strengthening document control.
Roles and Responsibilities
To learn more about the roles and responsibilities of the advisory group, please see the AIHA Principles of Good Practice Advisory Group Charter document.
Questions?
For more information, please contact Michele Twilley, DrPH, CIH (Staff Liaison).
