To Help Businesses Meet Demand, American Society of Safety Engineers Urge Rio Hondo College to Keep, Expand Environmental Program

Whittier, CA (March 28, 2007) — Noting an increasing demand for occupational safety, health and environmental professionals and the need for an increase in higher education and training programs in Southern California to help fill a void, local American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) members commended the Rio Hondo College Trustees for recently overturning a motion to eliminate its Environmental Technology Program. As the Trustees now move to reevaluate the program, ASSE urges them to expand it to include an Associate of Science (AS) degree, a certificate program in safety, to establish and offer a Bachelor of Science program in occupational safety and health and to name it the “Safety, Health and Environmental Sciences” department.

“This program supports and is an integral part of the safety, health and environmental management community here,” ASSE Orange County (OC) Chapter President Bob Howarth, CSP, of Irvine, said today. “The Rio Hondo program fills a void as it offers key occupational safety courses which is important in Southern California as we are grossly underserved when it comes to two or four-year safety degree programs as well as certificate programs in the occupational safety field.

“It is not a good situation when demand for our profession continues to spiral upwards while educational programs continue to disappear,” Howarth said. “There has been a major reduction in educational programs to support students’ needs, unlike in the 80s when universities such as USC, UCLA, UC Irvine, Cal State LA, etc., all had programs.”

“My collegues and I truly believe that the Rio Hondo Environmental Tech Program is unique and in a position to become a model for other colleges to follow,” OC ASSE Secretary Ed Aschcoff, director of health and safety with AECOM in Los Angeles, told the Trustees at the meeting. “More importantly, this program will continue to help the community by providing valuable education to individuals seeking long term employment with significant earning potential. The median income for an entry level for a safety position in Los Angeles is $57,000, four times greater than minimum wage.”

Aschoff, a product of the California community college system and a 14 year veteran of the safety profession, suggested that college officials broaden the scope of the program to encompass more areas including safety and health.

“The Rio Hondo Environmental Technology program has already garnered numerous accolades from professionals based on the quality of their students as they enter the workforce with newly acquired knowledge and skill sets,” Aschoff continued. “The safety, health and environmental profession needs more and more individuals of every level to keep improving our lives, property and the environment in which we live. We need to revolutionize this program, to reinvent it.”

One ASSE member noted that when she first moved to California in 1992, there were several safety and health educational programs including Community College Certificate programs and College and University BS and MS programs. Now, she noted, there are only a few certificate programs.

“This is not good in light of the demand for people in our profession and in the long run for worker safety,” Howarth said.

Each year more than 5,500 people die from on-the-job injuries and four million more suffer injuries and illnesses in the U.S. At the same time, millions of people go to and return home from work safely every day due in part to the work of occupational safety, health and environmental (SH&E) professionals. SH&Es, qualified by education, training and experience, identify hazards and develop appropriate controls for these hazards all aimed at preventing occupational injury, illness and property damage. They do this with technical knowledge, skill and expertise along with management abilities developed through years of education and practical experience.

Currently there are about 100,000 occupational safety, health and environmental practitioners in the U.S and many of them in California. There are more than 7.5 million workplaces in the U.S. and more than

111 million workers, according to the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP). Workplace injuries and diseases cost the nation billions of dollars in workers’ compensation and medical costs, reduced productivity and lost growth opportunities.

“SH&E professionals not only protect us,” Howarth said. “But they are and should be an integral part of any business plan and strategy, especially in this global and extremely competitive marketplace.”

According to the “Career Guide to the Safety Profession” there is another threat to meeting the increasing demand for SH&E professionals. Like many other professions, the SH&E profession could soon face a shortage of qualified individuals entering the workplace. As the average age of the population increases, many people currently working as safety managers, educators, industrial hygienists and safety engineers will soon be retiring, creating a potential shortage of well-qualified and degreed individuals to fill the jobs vacated by retirements.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) expects employment of occupational safety and health specialists and technicians to grow about as fast as the average for all occupations through 2012. As a result the SH&E profession growth in employment is expected to be approximately 10 to 20 percent from 2002 to 2012.

ASSE is asking the Rio Hondo College Trustees to not only keep the environmental technology program, but to expand it and to provide more support in the way of funding, staffing, and marketing.

“We look forward to working with the administration on how we can help them grow their program,” Howarth said. “The primary focus of our profession is to protect people, property and the environment. To do this we apply principles drawn from such disciplines as engineering, education, psychology, physiology, enforcement, fire safety, transportation safety, hygiene, health, physics and management.”

Founded in 1911, ASSE is the oldest and largest professional safety society and is committed to protecting people, property and the environment. ASSE’s more than 30,000 occupational safety, health and environmental professional members manage, supervise, research and consult on safety, health, transportation and environmental issues. Please go to www.asse.org or www.ocasse.com for more information.