Career guide to the safety profession

54 Pages·1997·0.66 MB·english

by  American Society of Safety Engineers Foundation

Career Guide to the Safety Profession, Second Edition
©2000 by the American Society of Safety Engineers Foundation and the Board of
Certfied Safety Professionals
ISBN 1-885581-10-6
Printed in the United States
This publication is funded by the American Society of Safety Engineers Foun-
dation and the Board of Certified Safety Professionals.
For additional copies, contact:
American Society of Safety Engineers Foundation
1800 E. Oakton Street
Des Plaines, IL 60018
Phone: [phone]; Fax: [phone]
Or
Board of Certified Safety Professionals
208 Burwash Avenue
Savoy, IL 61874
Phone: [phone]; Fax: [phone]; Email: [email protected]
Career Guide
to the
Safety
Profession
American Society of Safety Engineers Foundation
Des Plaines, Illinois
Board of Certified Safety Professionals
Savoy, Illinois
Contents
Page
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
What is the Safety Profession? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
What Safety Professionals Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Where Safety Professionals Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Employment Outlook for Safety Professionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Should I Become a Safety Professional? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
How to Become a Safety Professional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Areas Where Safety Professionals Can Specialize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
Profiles of Safety Professionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Publishers of the Career Guide to the Safety Profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
iii
Foreword
The Career Guide to the Safety Profession But much remains to be done. Workplace
provides an overview of the variety of careers injuries and diseases still burden the nation
available in the safety profession. It also with billions of dollars in workers’
provides guidance in the selection of compensation and medical care costs, lost
undergraduate and graduate academic productivity and wages. These injuries and
programs, and profiles some safety illnesses impose pain and suffering on
professionals now employed in both the thousands of workers. Furthermore,
public and private sectors. The professions advancing technologies and processes may
described here are critical to the health and bring new hazards to the workplace.
safety of all working men and women.
By anticipating and identifying hazards in the
One partner to these professions is the workplace—in the tasks, tools, materials,
National Institute for Occupational Safety machines, and other aspects of the work
and Health (NIOSH). Part of the Centers for environment—safety professionals help
Disease Control and Prevention, NIOSH assure that men and women go home safe
identifies the causes of work-related diseases from work. This publication provides
and injuries, evaluates the hazards of new students a chance to explore opportunities in
technologies and work practices, creates vital safety careers.
ways to control hazards so that workers are
protected, and makes recommendations for Linda Rosenstock, M.D., M.P.H.
occupational safety and health standards. As Director
the Director of NIOSH, every day I see the National Institute for Occupational
rewards and challenges of occupational Safety and Health
safety and health careers.
In recent decades, a great deal of progress
has been made in making workplaces safer.
Fatal and disabling injuries have declined
substantially. Methods to control many
specific hazards have been developed, and
some occupational diseases, such as brown
lung disease from cotton dust exposure and
liver cancer from vinyl chloride exposure,
have been nearly eliminated.
v
Preface
As we begin the twenty-first century, the Achieving a rewarding and successful career
safety profession requires highly educated, in safety is strongly related to education and
competent and motivated practitioners. It is certification. In a recent survey of Certified
estimated that the employment opportunities Safety Professionals® conducted by the Board
for safety professionals will continue to be of Certified Safety Professionals, 13% of
extremely good in the next decade. Today’s those holding the Certified Safety
safety professional serves as a valued Professional (CSP®) designation earned over
member of management, engineering and $100,000 per year. The average pay was
business teams, often as a leader for projects, about $75,000 per year. About 45% of the
initiatives and programs. Job satisfaction in respondents had advanced degrees. Several
the profession is high. In fact, recent surveys studies show that those holding the CSP earn
by the American Society of Safety Engineers about $15,000 more per year than their non-
(ASSE) and the Board of Certified Safety certified peers.
Professionals (BCSP) report a “90% career
satisfaction” rate. The various responsibilities This guide provides a wealth of information
which make up the typical daily schedules about the various career options available in
of safety professionals mean that most are the safety profession and the educational
seldom bored—and many times often preparation typically required. We hope that
challenged. the Career Guide to the Safety Profession
provides vital information to students
To meet these challenges, safety considering a rewarding career as a safety
professionals need a strong academic professional.
background. To maintain their competency,
safety professionals must continue their Roger L. Brauer, Ph.D., CSP, PE
professional development throughout their Executive Director
careers. Business, technology and legal Board of Certified Safety Professionals1
changes demand that safety professionals
stay abreast of the impacts on professional Edwin J. Granberry, Jr., FAIS, CES
practice. The clear lines that once separated Chairperson
various safety disciplines in the past have American Society of Safety Engineers
faded as more safety professionals also Foundation1
assume health and environmental
responsibilities in business, industry and
governmental agencies. Safety professionals
with a broad undergraduate background in
science, engineering, business, health, ® “Certified Safety Professional” and “CSP” are certification
marks awarded to the Board of Certified Safety Professionals
education, law, government, and psychology
by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
are well prepared to function in today’s
employment environment. 1 See Page 49 for profiles of BCSP and the ASSE Foundation.
vii
Introduction
As society becomes more complex, there is the next twenty years has increased the scope
a constant need for new and advanced goods of safety practice into areas of environmental
and services. This, in turn, creates jobs and protection, product safety, hazardous
professions that were unheard of just one materials management and designing safety
generation ago. Because of the very rapid into vehicles, highways, process plants and
changes in these jobs and professions, it is buildings.
hard for students to learn about future job
opportunities. It is even more difficult to With the increased emphasis on safety driven
know about the type of preparation that is by laws, public concern and company values,
needed for a particular profession—or the more colleges today prepare people for
qualities and traits that might help individuals careers in safety. The number of people
succeed in it. preparing themselves for careers in the safety
profession through safety degree programs
The purpose of this booklet is to provide in- is increasing. As a result, the safety
depth information about the safety profession profession has respect from other established
that should be helpful for students professions such as engineering, medicine
considering a career in this challenging and and law (all of which had traditionally been
rewarding field. involved in hazard control, but had no special
training in it).
For over a century, safety professionals have
protected the safety and health of the public In the last twenty years, employment in safety
by controlling hazards. While these efforts has grown dramatically. The period of
became more sophisticated and widespread corporate downsizing in the early 1990’s had
during the twentieth century, real progress little impact on professional safety positions.
on a wide front did not occur in the U.S. until Safety has also become more complex, so
after World War II. that today’s safety professionals must have
better qualifications. Safety demands the best
In 1970, a major development in safety came in all of its practitioners.
about when the U.S. Congress passed the
Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH The information found in this booklet will
Act). This legislation was important because explain what the safety profession is about
it stressed the control of workplace hazards. and what to study to become part of it.
This, in turn, defined a clear area of practice Hopefully, the information in this booklet
for the previously loosely organized safety will show that there is a place for students in
profession. Other legislation passed during the safety profession.
1
What is the Safety Profession?
The primary focus for the safety profession (cid:127) Physics tells people about electricity,
is prevention of harm to people, property and heat, radiation and other forms of energy
the environment. Safety professionals apply that must be controlled to ensure safe use.
principles drawn from such disciplines as (cid:127) Ergonomics helps people understand the
engineering, education, psychology, performance limits of humans and helps
physiology, enforcement, hygiene, health, them design tasks, machines, work
physics, and management. They use stations and facilities which improve
appropriate methods and techniques of loss performance and safety.
prevention and loss control. “Safety science” (cid:127) Psychology helps people understand
is a twenty-first century term for everything human behaviors that can lead to or avoid
that goes into the prevention of accidents, accidents.
illnesses, fires, explosions and other events (cid:127) Physiology, biomechanics and medicine
which harm people, property and the help people understand the mechanisms
environment. of injury and illness and how to prevent
them.
The U.S. has a lot to gain by reducing the (cid:127) Engineering, business management,
number of these preventable events. The economics, and even sociology and
National Safety Council estimated that in the geology give people the knowledge
U.S., accidents alone cost our nation over necessary to improve safety in our
$480.5 billion in 1998. Fire-related losses society.
exceed $8 billion per year.
The things that can cause or contribute to
Illness caused by exposing people to harmful accidents, illnesses, fire and explosions, and
biological, physical and chemical agents similar undesired events are called “hazards.”
produce great losses each year and accurate Safety science gives people the ability to
estimates of their impact are hard to make. identify, evaluate, and control or prevent
In addition, pollution of all kinds causes these hazards. Safety science provides
damage to all forms of life. This generates management methods for setting policy and
skyrocketing cleanup costs and threatens the securing funds to operate safety activities in
future habitability of our planet. a company.
The term “safety science” may sound new, Hazard control activities go on every day
but many sources of safety science throughout the world. From the careful
knowledge are hundreds of years old. All of design and operation of nuclear power
the following are knowledge areas of safety generating stations to the elimination of lead-
science: based paints in homes, the efforts to reduce
(cid:127) Chemistry and biology provide threats to public safety go on nonstop. The
knowledge about hazardous substances. application of safety science principles
3
occurs in many places: in the workplace, in
all modes of transportation, in laboratories,
schools, and hospitals, at construction sites,
on oil drilling rigs at sea, in underground
mines, in the busiest cities, in the space
program, on farms, and anywhere else where
people may be exposed to hazards.
Safety science helps people understand how
something can act as a hazard. People must
know how and when the hazard can produce
harm and the best ways to eliminate or reduce
the danger. If a hazard cannot be eliminated,
we must know how to minimize exposures
to the hazard. This costs money and requires
assistance from owners and managers. Safety
professionals must know the most cost-
effective ways to reduce the risk and how to
advise employees and owners. By applying
safety science, all of these activities can be
effectively carried out. Without safety
science, safety professionals rely on
guesswork, mythology and superstition.
Safety professionals are the specialists in the
fight to control hazards. To be called
professionals, they must acquire the essential
knowledge of safety science through
education and experience so that others can
rely on their judgments and recom-
mendations. Top safety professionals
demonstrate their competence through
professional certification examinations.
Regardless of the industry, safety
professionals help to achieve safety in the
workplace by identifying and analyzing
hazards which potentially create injury and
illness problems, developing and applying
hazard controls, communicating safety and
health information, measuring the
effectiveness of controls, and performing
follow-up evaluations to measure continuing
improvement in programs.
4
What Safety Professionals Do
Wherever people run the risk of personal (cid:127) Regulatory Compliance: ensuring that
injury or illness, they are likely to find safety mandatory safety and health standards
professionals at work. Safety professionals are satisfied.
are people who use a wide variety of (cid:127) Health Hazard Control: controlling
management, engineering and scientific hazards such as noise, chemical
skills to prevent human suffering and related exposures, radiation, or biological
losses. Their specific roles and activities vary hazards that can create harm.
widely, depending on their education, (cid:127) Ergonomics: improving the workplace
experience and the types of organizations for based on an understanding of human
whom they work. Safety professionals who physiological and psychological
have earned doctoral degrees are often found characteristics, abilities and limitations.
at the college and university level, teaching (cid:127) Hazardous Materials Management:
and doing research, public service and ensuring that dangerous chemicals and
consulting. Most safety professionals, other products are procured, stored, and
however, have bachelor’s or master’s degrees. disposed of in ways that prevent fires,
These professionals may be found working exposure to or harm from these
for insurance companies, in a variety of substances.
industries, for state and federal agencies like (cid:127) Environmental Protection: controlling
the Occupational Safety and Health hazards that can lead to undesirable
Administration (OSHA), and in hospitals, releases of harmful materials into the air,
schools and nonprofit organizations. water or soil.
(cid:127) Training: providing employees and
Safety professionals’ precise roles and managers with the knowledge and skills
responsibilities depend on the companies or necessary to recognize hazards and
organizations for whom they work. Different perform their jobs safely and effectively.
industries have different hazards and require (cid:127) Accident and Incident Investigations:
unique safety expertise. However, most determining the facts related to an
safety professionals do at least several of the accident or incident based on witness
following: interviews, site inspections and
(cid:127) Hazard Recognition: identifying collection of other evidence.
conditions or actions that may cause (cid:127) Advising Management: helping
injury, illness or property damage. managers establish safety objectives,
(cid:127) Inspections/Audits: assessing safety and plan programs to achieve those
health risks associated with equipment, objectives and integrate safety into the
materials, processes, facilities or culture of an organization.
abilities. (cid:127) Record Keeping: maintaining safety and
(cid:127) Fire Protection: reducing fire hazards by health information to meet government
inspection, layout of facilities and requirements, as well as to provide data
processes, and design of fire detection for problem solving and decision-
and suppression systems. making.
5