ASSE Commends NIOSH for NAOSHW Report
In a letter to Director John Howard, ASSE commended NIOSH for the publication of its National Assessment of the Occupational Safety and Health Workforce report (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/oshworkforce/), the first look at occupational safety and health workforce issues since the Institute of Medicine’s Safe Work in the 21st Century (http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070260) study in 2000. The report addresses how SH&E professionals are educated and trained, the means by which they demonstrate professionalism, the resources available for their education and training, how their education and training meet the needs of employers who will hire them, and a better understanding of the future need for SH&E professionals as well as this nation’s ability to meet that need.
ASSE said this report can serve as a foundation for determining how best to support the need for SH&E professionals over the next decade and beyond and looks forward to working with NIOSH, its other partners, and our member educators to address the variety of issues raised by this report. ASSE and the members of its Educational Standards Committee will be working to address questions the report raises. The most obvious issues are that current trends in educating safety and health will result in only half the needed practitioners and that the number of safety and health professionals reflected in this new report are about half the number estimated in 2000 and do not match even ASSE’s membership numbers.