THE DEVELOPMENT OF OCCUPATIONAL HYGIENE AND THE TRAINING OF HEALTH AND SAFETY PROFESSIONALS *

Abstract

The paper seeks to contribute to the debate on the development and consolidation of the professional field of occupational hygiene within the broader context of health and safety. It examines developments over the last 10 years since the 1975 paper of ATHERLEY and HALE( Ann. occup. Hyg . 18, 321–334). It discusses the overlap in training between four groups active in the area of hygiene and the ecological rivalry that this creates. It proposes a coordinated system of training and qualification to help to resolve this conflict and the confusion it creates in the minds of industry. The scheme, based on existing practices of BERBOH, would capitalize on the existing overlap of training provision at ‘rule following’ level to establish a comprehensive repertoire of proficiency certificates which would be accessible to the full range of people working in the field and would allow flexible combinations to meet industry's real needs for problem-based mixes of skills across the whole spectrum of health and safety.