CAREER GUIDETO THE SAFETY PROFESSION

BOARD OF CERTIFIED SAFETY PROFESSIONALS

AMERICAN SOCIETY OFSAFETY ENGINEERS FOUNDATION

ISBN 978-1-885581-50-1

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Career Guide to the Safety Profession, Third Edition2007 by the American Society of Safety Engineers Foundation and the Board ofCertfied Safety Professionals

ISBN 978-1-885581-50-1

Printed in the United States

This publication is funded by the American Society of Safety EngineersFoundation and the Board of Certified Safety Professionals.

For additional copies, contact:American Society of Safety Engineers Foundation1800 E. Oakton StreetDes Plaines, IL 60018Phone: 847-699-2929; Fax: 847-296-3769; Email: assefoundation@asse.org

OrBoard of Certified Safety Professionals208 Burwash AvenueSavoy, IL 61874Phone: 217-359-9263; Fax: 217-359-0055; Email: bcsp@bcsp.org

Career Guideto theSafetyProfessionAmerican Society of Safety Engineers FoundationDes Plaines, Illinois

Board of Certified Safety ProfessionalsSavoy, Illinois

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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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Profiles of Safety Professionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Publishers of the Career Guide to the Safety Profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

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The Career Guide to the Safety Professionis a great resource for those who want tomake a real difference in safety in the U.S.and around the World. The guide providesan excellent overview of the challengingcareers available to safety professionals. Italso profiles some successful safetyprofessionals now employed who are makingimportant contributions in both the public andprivate sectors.

In addition, the guide gives critical informationneeded in selecting the right undergraduateand graduate academic programs that meetthe individual needs for entering a career insafety as well as continuous professionalgrowth.

Safety and health professionals are the criticallink to assuring worker health and safety.Every workplace can benefit from the valuedknowledge and experience safetyprofessionals bring to an organization. Safetyprofessionals not only help identify andreduce workplace hazards, they help reducecosts and optimize the contributions of allworking men and women for the organization.

As a former Administrator for theOccupational Safety and HealthAdministration (OSHA), I can assure youOSHA values safety professionals andrecognizes they are a critical element inachieving the Agencys mission. The Agencyhas partnered with ASSE, BCSP and othersto deliver more effective information andtools to safety professionals so that greatersafety and health performance can be realizedaround the country. OSHA also continues to

improve its enforcement and standard-settingstrategy and a key component of that effortis increasing the number of safetyprofessionals on staff that are experiencedand hold professional certifications.

The pain and suffering caused by thousandsof workplace injuries and diseases each yearis clearly unacceptable. There are over 7.5million workplaces in this country and over111 million workers. Workplace injuries anddiseases cost the nation billions of dollars inworkers compensation and medical costs,reduced productivity and lost growthopportunities. New technologies and globaleconomic pressures and the challenges ofassuring worker safety and health willcontinue to increase. That creates a greaterdemand for highly trained, highly skilled andhighly motivated safety professionals.

This guide is an essential tool for studentsentering the safety field and practicingprofessionals looking for new opportunitiesand professional growth.

John L. Henshaw, CIH, ROHFormer Assistant Secretary of Labor forOccupational Safety and HealthU.S. Department of Labor

Foreword

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Preface

As we begin the twenty-first century, thesafety profession requires highly educated,competent and motivated practitioners. It isestimated that employment opportunities forsafety professionals will continue to beabundant in the next decade. Todays safetyprofessional serves as a valued member ofmanagement, engineering and business teams,often as a leader for projects, initiatives andprograms.

Job satisfaction in the profession remains high.Safety professionals are challenged andrewarded with broad responsibilities that playan essential role in managing hazards,implementing controls and helping companiesmaintain their profitability. In the 2006National Safety Survey conducted byOccupational Hazards magazine, 70% ofsafety professionals found their jobs to behighly satisfyinga fact most attribute tomaking a positive difference in peoples lives.Safety professionals take pride in knowingthey work to prevent injuries and illnesses totheir fellow employees and help them toreturn safely to their families each day.

To meet future challenges, safetyprofessionals need a strong academicbackground. To maintain their competency,they must continue their professionaldevelopment throughout their careers.Business, technology and legal changesdemand that safety professionals stay abreastof the impacts on professional practice. Theclear lines that once separated various safetydisciplines in the past have faded as moresafety professionals also assume health andenvironmental responsibilities in business,industry and governmental agencies. Safety

professionals with a broad undergraduatebackground in science, engineering, business,health, education, law, government, andpsychology are well prepared to function intodays employment environment.

Achieving a rewarding and successful careerin safety is strongly related to education andcertification. In a 2004 Board of CertifiedSafety Professionals salary survey ofCertified Safety Professionals, 22% of thoseholding the Certified Safety Professional(CSP) certification earned over $100,000per year. The average pay was about $84,245per year with 53% of the respondents havingadvanced degrees. An ASSE CompensationStudy conducted in 2003 revealed that thoseholding the CSP credential earn about $17,000more per year than their non-certified peers.

The Career Guide to the Safety Professioncontains a wealth of information about careeroptions available in the safety profession andthe educational preparation typically required.We hope that this vital information guidesyour steps as you consider a rewarding careeras a safety professional.

Jeffrey L. Robinson, CSP, P.E.President, Board of Certified Safety Professionals1

Kennith D. Brock, CSPChair, American Society of Safety EngineersFoundation1

Certified Safety Professional and CSP are

certification marks awarded to the Board of CertifiedSafety Professionals by the U.S. Patent and TrademarkOffice.

1 See Page 49 for profiles of BCSP and the ASSE

Foundation (established by and in partnership with ASSE).

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Introduction

As society becomes more complex, there isa constant need for new and advanced goodsand services. This, in turn, creates jobs andprofessions that were unheard of just onegeneration ago. Because of the very rapidchanges in these jobs and professions, it ishard for students to learn about future jobopportunities. It is even more difficult toknow about the type of preparation that isneeded for a particular professionor thequalities and traits that might help individualssucceed in it.

The purpose of this booklet is to provide in-depth information about the safety professionthat should help students considering a careerin this challenging and rewarding field.

For over a century, safety professionals haveprotected the safety and health of the publicby controlling hazards. While these effortsbecame more sophisticated and widespreadduring the twentieth century, real progresson a wide front did not occur in the U.S. untilafter World War II.

In 1970, a major development in safety cameabout when the U.S. Congress passed theOccupational Safety and Health Act (OSHAct). This legislation was important becauseit stressed the control of workplace hazards.This, in turn, defined a clear area of practicefor the previously loosely organized safetyprofession. Other legislation passed duringthe next twenty years has increased the scopeof safety practice into areas of environmentalprotection, product safety, hazardousmaterials management and designing safetyinto vehicles, highways, process plants andbuildings.

With the increased emphasis on safety drivenby laws, public concern and company values,more colleges today prepare people forcareers in safety. The number of peoplepreparing themselves for careers in the safetyprofession through safety degree programsis increasing. As a result, the safetyprofession has respect from other establishedprofessions such as engineering, medicineand law (all of which had traditionally beeninvolved in hazard control, but had no specialtraining in it).

In the past 25 years, employment in safetyhas grown and changed dramatically. Theperiod of corporate downsizing in the 1990sand sustained cost pressures resulted ingreater use of safety consultants and lessreliance on large corporate staffs. Manysafety professionals were asked to expandtheir roles, often taking on responsibility forenvironmental leadership, productstewardship, and/or security, in addition totraditional health and safety functions.Globalization and threats from terrorism,pandemics, and natural disasters resulted inopportunities to contribute in new settings andwith greater prominence within organizations.Safety has become more complex, so thattodays safety professionals must have betterqualifications. Safety demands the best in allof its practitioners.

The information found in this booklet willexplain what the safety profession is aboutand what to study to become part of it. Theinformation in this booklet is intended to showthat there is a place for students in the safetyprofession.

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What is the Safety Profession?

The primary focus for the safety professionis prevention of harm to people, property andthe environment. Safety professionals applyprinciples drawn from such disciplines asengineering, education, psychology,physiology, enforcement, hygiene, health,physics, and management. They useappropriate methods and techniques of lossprevention and loss control. Safety scienceis a twenty-first century term for everythingthat goes into the prevention of accidents,illnesses, fires, explosions and other eventswhich harm people, property and theenvironment.

The U.S. has a lot to gain by reducing thenumber of these preventable events. TheNational Safety Council estimated that in theU.S., accidents alone cost our nation over$574.8 billion in 2004. Fire-related lossesaccounted for $9.8 billion of that total.

Illness caused by exposing people to harmfulbiological, physical and chemical agentsproduce great losses each year and accurateestimates of their impact are hard to make.In addition, pollution of all kinds causesdamage to all forms of life. This generatesskyrocketing cleanup costs and threatens thefuture habitability of our planet.

The term safety science may sound new,but many sources of safety scienceknowledge are hundreds of years old. All ofthe following are knowledge areas of safetyscience: Chemistry and biology provide

knowledge about hazardous substances.

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Physics tells people about electricity,heat, radiation and other forms of energythat must be controlled to ensure safe use.

Ergonomics helps people understand theperformance limits of humans and helpsthem design tasks, machines, workstations and facilities which improveperformance and safety.

Environmental sciences providesknowledge about pollution sources andtheir control, waste disposal, impactstudies, environmental alteration (heat,light, irrigation, erosion, etc.), and ecology.

Psychology helps people understandhuman behaviors that can lead to or avoidaccidents.

Physiology, biomechanics and medicinehelp people understand the mechanismsof injury and illness and how to preventthem.

Engineering, business management,economics, and even sociology andgeology give people the knowledgenecessary to improve safety in oursociety and contribute to productivity andprofitability.

The things that can cause or contribute toaccidents, illnesses, fire and explosions, andsimilar undesired events are called hazards.Safety science gives people the ability toidentify, evaluate, and control or preventthese hazards. Safety science providesmanagement methods for setting policy andsecuring funds to operate safety activities ina company.

4Hazard control activities go on every daythroughout the world. From the careful designand operation of nuclear power generatingstations to the elimination of lead-based paintsin homes, the efforts to reduce threats topublic safety go on nonstop. The applicationof safety science principles occurs in manyplaces: in the workplace, in all modes oftransportation, in laboratories, schools, andhospitals, at construction sites, on oil drillingrigs at sea, in underground mines, in thebusiest cities, in the space program, on farms,and anywhere else where people may beexposed to hazards.

Safety science helps people understand howsomething can act as a hazard. People mustknow how and when the hazard can produceharm and the best ways to eliminate or reducethe danger. If a hazard cannot be eliminated,we must know how to minimize exposuresto the hazard. This costs money and requiresassistance from designers, owners andmanagers. Safety professionals must knowthe most cost-effective ways to reduce therisk and how to advise employees, owners,and managers. By applying safety science,all of these activities can be effectivelycarried out. Without safety science, safetyprofessionals rely on guesswork, mythologyand superstition.

Safety professionals are the specialists in thefight to control hazards. To be calledprofessionals, they must acquire the essentialknowledge of safety science througheducation and experience so that others canrely on their judgments and recom-mendations. Top safety professionalsdemonstrate their competence throughprofessional certification examinations.Regardless of the industry, safetyprofessionals help to achieve safety in theworkplace by identifying and analyzinghazards which potentially create injury andillness problems, developing and applying

hazard controls, communicating safety andhealth information, measuring theeffectiveness of controls, and performingfollow-up evaluations to measure continuingimprovement in programs.

What Safety Professionals Do

Wherever people run the risk of personalinjury or illness, they are likely to find safetyprofessionals at work. Safety professionalsare people who use a wide variety ofmanagement, engineering and scientificskills to prevent human suffering and relatedlosses. Their specific roles and activities varywidely, depending on their education,experience and the types of organizations forwhom they work.

Safety professionals who have earneddoctoral degrees are often found at thecollege and university level, teaching anddoing research, public service and consulting.Most safety professionals, however, havebachelors or masters degrees. Theseprofessionals may be found working forinsurance companies, in a variety of industries,for state and federal agencies like theOccupational Safety and HealthAdministration (OSHA), and in hospitals,schools and nonprofit organizations.

An American national standard sets forthcommon and reasonable parameters of theprofessional safety position. This can befound in the ANSI/ASSE Z590.2-2003Criteria for Establishing the Scope andFunctions of the Professional SafetyPosition publication (https://www.asse.org/shoponline/books/standards/10511.htm).

Safety professionals precise roles andresponsibilities depend on the companies ororganizations for whom they work. Differentindustries have different hazards and requireunique safety expertise. However, most safety

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professionals do at least several of thefollowing: Hazard Recognition: identifying

conditions or actions that may causeinjury, illness or property damage.

Inspections/Audits: assessing safety andhealth risks associated with equipment,materials, processes, facilities orabilities.

Fire Protection: reducing fire hazards byinspection, layout of facilities andprocesses, and design of fire detectionand suppression systems.

Regulatory Compliance: ensuring thatmandatory safety and health standardsare satisfied.

Health Hazard Control: controllinghazards such as noise, chemicalexposures, radiation, or biologicalhazards that can create harm.

Ergonomics: improving the workplacebased on an understanding of humanphysiological and psychologicalcharacteristics, abilities and limitations.

Hazardous Materials Management:ensuring that dangerous chemicals andother products are procured, stored, anddisposed of in ways that prevent fires,exposure to or harm from thesesubstances.

Environmental Protection: controllinghazards that can lead to undesirablereleases of harmful materials into the air,water or soil.

Training: providing employees andmanagers with the knowledge and skillsnecessary to recognize hazards andperform their jobs safely and effectively.

6 Accident and Incident Investigations:determining the facts related to anaccident or incident based on witnessinterviews, site inspections and collectionof other evidence.

Advising Management: helpingmanagers establish safety objectives,plan programs to achieve thoseobjectives and integrate safety into theculture of an organization.

Record Keeping: maintaining safety andhealth information to meet governmentrequirements, as well as to provide datafor problem solving and decision-making.

Evaluating: judging the effectiveness ofexisting safety and health relatedprograms and activities.

Emergency Response: organizing,training and coordinating skilledemployees with regard to auditory andvisual communications pertaining toemergencies such as fires, accidents orother disasters.

Managing Safety Programs: planning,organizing, budgeting, and trackingcompletion and effectiveness of activitiesintended to achieve safety objectives inan organization or to implementadministrative or technical controls thatwill eliminate or reduce hazards.

Product Safety: assessing the probabilitythat exposure to a product during anystage of its lifecycle will lead to anunacceptable impact on human health orthe environment and determining theappropriate auditory and visual hazardwarnings.

Security: identifying and implementingdesign features and procedures to protectfacilities and businesses from threats thatintroduce hazards.

No matter where people work, travel, live orplay, conditions exist that can result inpersonal injury or illness. And wherever thepossibility of personal injury or illness exists,

they will find safety professionals dedicatedto preventing human suffering and relatedlosses.

Successful safety professionals are effectivecommunicators with strong people skills.Most people in this professioncharacteristically possess the desire to helpand work with others. The safety professionalfaces new challenges almost daily. Thesatisfaction of knowing that people have beenprotected because harmful accidents andother incidents have been prevented is justone of the many rewards associated withprofessional safety practice or what safetyprofessionals do.

Where Safety Professionals Work

Since safety professionals provide technicalassistance in identifying, evaluating andcontrolling hazards, safety professionalswork virtually anywhere where people mightbe exposed to hazards. There are positionsfor safety professionals in every part of theUnited States and in other countries.

No matter what a companys business is, itsemployees can encounter some type ofhazard, either at work, getting to and fromwork or at home or play. Even working at acomputer terminal can be hazardous,producing long-term injuries to the hand andwrist, back or other parts of the body.Whether a company does manufacturing,mining, transportation, agriculture,chemicals, fuels production, construction, orprovides services, it will always face hazardsin some or all of its operations. It is likelythat the company would employ or contractwith one or more safety professionals.

It is common for companies to employ safetyprofessionals at particular work sites. Atcorporate offices, safety professionals cancoordinate the hazard control activities awayfrom the work sites. Some college graduatesin safety begin their careers as safetyassociates, coordinators or assistantmanagers at small plants or company worksites. After a period of training and successfulperformance, the graduates may advance toSafety Manager at a small plant. Later, theymay advance to similar positions at largerfacilities.

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In recent years, safety professionals areworking more and more in diverse and non-traditional worksites as many job opportunitieshave expanded to government, construction,transportation, service industries andconsulting practices, among others. Suchemployment requires safety professionals totravel to different worksites to provide supportto their internal and external clients.

Many companies have combined safety,industrial hygiene, environmental affairs, fireprotection and ergonomics into a singlefunction. A safety professional may advanceby overseeing the work of all areas in thedepartment.

International projects are on the rise and thenumber of companies operating outside theUnited States continues to increase. Safetyprofessionals must now adapt to multi-language contexts.

Many safety professionals aspire to becomea Corporate Safety Manager/Director/VicePresident with responsibilities for leading andmanaging the safety function at theorganizations corporate or divisionheadquarters. There they have broaderresponsibilities and may have to travel oftento visit various work sites. Other safetyprofessionals prefer to remain at one worksite where their responsibilities can be just aschallenging, but where travel is light.

8Figure 1. Industries in which Safety Professionals Work.Based on a 2000 BCSP Salary Study.

Table 1. Safety Professionals withinManufacturing and Production Industries(19%)

Industry PercentApparel and other finished fabric products

Table 5. Safety Professionals withinTransportation Industries (2%)Industry PercentAir 38Local, suburban and urban passenger 5Motor freight transportation and warehousing 14Railroad 33Water 10Total 100

Figure 1 shows where safety professionalsare employed in general. Tables 1 through 5provide more details about employment forsafety professionals.

A growing number of safety professionalswho have performed very well in their safetypositions are being promoted to otherresponsible positions which extend beyondsafety. For example, they might be placed incharge of a department, unit or the entireoperation at a site. Since safety is an importantpart of all successful operations, safetyprofessionals are being recognized as peoplewho can effectively contribute to otheractivities within the organization.

Some safety professionals work for consultingfirms that are hired by organizations to providespecialized hazard control services, such astraining of workers and engineers. Hazardcontrol services might be provided on a one-time basis, or they might be performed on aregular basis. For example, NASA and otherfederal government agencies frequentlycontract with consulting firms for many oftheir engineering and other technicalfunctions, including safety work. Theconsultants have offices on site and workside-by-side with federal employees on along-term basis. Many large corporations arenow using contractors in the same way. Whilesome safety consultants provide their servicesto different clients all over the country, otherswork mainly in one city, state or area.

A safety professional may work in a largeconsulting firm with dozens of otherconsultants. However, many consultants workalone and are often self-employed on short-term assignments in their particular specialty.

Safety consulting work covers a widespectrum of hazard control activities. Someconsultants specialize in evaluating andcontrolling only specific types of hazards. Forexample, safety consultants working asindustrial hygienists concentrate on healthhazards such as vapor, noise, radiation, toxicdusts, gases, or other physical agents. Othersafety consultants might specialize inconstruction hazards, or hazards of boilers,cranes, aircraft or chemical plants. A safetyprofessional who gains a high degree ofexpertise with specific types of hazards, eitherthrough education or experience (and usuallyboth) can have a satisfying and rewardingcareer as a safety consultant. Those involvedin consulting work also need to be able tomanage the day-to-day aspects of operatinga private business.

Many safety consultants with professionalskills or expertise in a specific area provideexpert witness and litigation support.

Insurance companies often provide consultingservices to the policy holders they insure.These safety professionals are known as losscontrol representatives. They work for aninsurance company and visit the facilities ofinsured policy holders to assist them withhazard recognition, evaluation and control.Many safety professionals begin their careersas loss control representatives.

Because of the tragic losses caused byuncontrolled hazards, federal, state and localgovernment have created laws or regulationsregarding how and when hazards are to becontrolled. To enforce these laws andregulations, government agencies employ

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safety professionals as inspectors andaccident investigators. They visit sites whereuncontrolled hazards are thought to exist.These government-employed safetyprofessionals usually work in one area of thecountry or within a state. They may also needto visit sites in that area, either on a regularor occasional basis. They provide theinformation needed to determine ifgovernment laws, regulations or standardshave been met. From their recommendations,changes can be made to achieve bettercontrol of any hazard found to exist.

Employment Outlook for Safety Professionals

The employment outlook for safetyprofessionals is bright. Depending on theireducation, communication skills, experienceand professional certifications, safetyprofessionals can expect to have a rewardingcareer far into the future. Specialists will beneeded as advancements in technology,regulations and public expectations increase.

With a bachelors or masters degree,graduates can expect to find rewardingemployment in business settings or in thepublic sector. They may also find a careerwith federal, state and local safety agencies.Some have responsibility for emergencyresponse planning and management.Individuals may find employment in researchlaboratories and at colleges and universities,although some of these positions may requiredoctoral degrees.

The safety profession includes many new jobclassifications. For example, the field ofergonomics (fitting the job to the person) hasgrown as injury rates have climbed in meatprocessing, manufacturing and at computerworkstations. Also, there is an increasedemphasis on highway and construction safety.All of these areas offer good employmentopportunities.

Insurance and workers compensation costshave escalated over the last two decades andhave become economic concerns for manyemployers. This has led to a growingemphasis on safety for companies and moreemployment opportunities for safetyprofessionals.

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Responsible companies, concerned public andspecial interest groups have increasedprotection for our environment. Thetechniques and principles involved inachieving this are similar to those used inaccident prevention. Safety professionals areoften assigned responsibilities forenvironmental affairs. This increases the needfor safety professionals in organizations withenvironmental hazards.

There is increased coverage in the print andbroadcast media about hazardous wastespills, accidents, and other events thatproduce losses which could have beenavoided through preventive measures and bybetter management. The adverse publicitycreates opportunities for people trained todevelop management systems that preventlosses. For some time, the careeropportunities for innovative safetyprofessionals have grown faster than thenumber of trained and qualified individualsavailable.

The need for safety professionals hascontinued to grow in spite of a shrinking U.S.manufacturing base. While many non-U.S.countries have safety standards less stringentthan those found in the United States,responsible companies require their foreignplants to safeguard all employees. Manydeveloping countries are also raisingandforeign countries are changingtheir safety,health and environmental standards. In manycases, international standards now protectworkers everywhere and U.S.-based safetyprofessionals oversee safety at facilitiesoutside the U.S.

Employment in the field of safety hascontinued to grow over the years. This growthhas continued, even in bad economic times.There is no reason to believe that the needfor more safety professionals will diminish inthe near future. There is a need to replacethose retiring from practice.

Salaries

Salaries range from lows of about $30,000for safety inspectors to highs of $150,000 forhighly qualified individuals in demandingpositions.

The top people in the safety profession oftenearn salaries comparable to top people in law,medicine, engineering and accounting. Thepositions of those leading loss preventionefforts for large corporations or thosemanaging or owning consulting firms oftenprovide compensation well into six figures.

The Board of Certified Safety Professionalsregularly monitors salaries of those safetyprofessionals holding the Certified SafetyProfessional (CSP) designation. Summarydata and details by gender, degree type andlevel, age, industry, state and other factorsare available from BCSP.

Professional societies, such as ASSE, theNational Safety Council (NSC) and theAmerican Industrial Hygiene Association(AIHA), conduct periodic salary studies andpublish the results. Contact theseorganizations to request a copy of their mostrecent salary surveys.

According to Safety+Healths 2005 SalarySurvey, 78% of survey respondents earn morethan $50,000 per year. Of those with five toten years of safety experience, 48% madebetween $50,000 and $79,999 per year. 36%of safety professionals with over 20 years ofexperience are making more than $100,000a year.

Opportunities for Advancement

A persons ambition, level of education,experience, skills and certifications all affectcareer paths in safety. As with otherprofessions, when people perform well overa period of time, they become candidates forpositions of greater responsibility. More andmore safety professionals have broadeducation, experience and professionalcredentials and are well qualified to moveinto different parts of business organizations.Also, experienced safety professionalsusually have little trouble moving from oneorganization to another.

Some people may seek advanced degrees.Over one third of safety professionals todayhave advanced degrees in some field. Thosewith a doctoral degree may find a teachingcareer to their liking or find opportunities inresearch on specific safety issues as technicaladvisors. The National Institute forOccupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) hascontinuing needs for research on many kindsof workplace hazards.

Safety professionals may also attendprofessional schools and go into law practiceor administration. Safety careers afford anindividual experience that is far broader thanmany others. Safety professionals can, andoften do, get involved in many aspects of abusiness.

Opportunities for Minorities and OtherGroups

Minority safety practitioners have beenamong the ranks of safety professionals sincethe 1800s, yet their participation was not wellrecognized until recently. Early examplesinclude Alice Hamilton, MD, who began herresearch into toxic substances and workplacediseases at the turn of the century. Garret A.Morgan and Andrew J. Beard are early

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examples of African-Americans whoseengineering designs and patents significantlyenhanced the safety and health of Americans.Beard, in the late 1800s, invented theautomatic linking coupler, which improved avery hazardous job performed by railroad yardworkers. Morgan invented the gas mask usedin the early 1900s in underground mines. Healso patented the electric traffic signal.

As the safety profession began to gaincredibility in the 1970s, there were very fewwomen in the profession. Today, it isestimated from recent studies that about 15%to 20% of those entering the safety professionare women.

The number of women, minorities and peoplewith disabilities who are entering the safetyprofession is growing. Some evidence of thisgrowth can be found in recent studies ofminorities graduating with undergraduatedegrees in the allied fields of industrialengineering and public health. It is estimatedthat in the future, about one fourth to one thirdof all degreed entry-level safety professionalswill be from a minority population of theUnited States.

Careers in safety are available and open tomen and women of every racial and ethnicbackground. Having a physical disability isnot a barrier to success in the safetyprofession. There is a trend toward diversityin the work place.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act(ADA), employers must provide access toemployment for those with disabilities. Notonly is the safety profession open to thosewith disabilities, many safety professionalsneed to evaluate and control hazards whichmay impact those with disabilities.

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Updates on Job Opportunities

One annual reference that projects jobopportunities in many fields, including safety,is the Occupational Outlook Handbook,published by the Bureau of Labor Statisticsof the U.S. government. The listing ofoccupations includes safety engineers, safetyinspectors, safety and health practitioners, andsafety specialists and technicians.

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Should I Become a Safety Professional?

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When choosing a future profession, as astudent, what should I look for? Probably allof the following considerations are important:a profession that is respected, one that isassociated with important work, one that givesyou a feeling of accomplishment, and one thatprovides growth and the potential to advancein responsibility. You should also seek aprofession where compensation reflects skillsand accomplishments. A desirable professionprovides stable employment, variety in thedaily routine, while keeping interest high andstress low. These are characteristics of anideal profession. While no profession is idealfor everyone, the safety profession scoresvery high on nearly all of these factors.

You may wonder if you have what it takes tobe a successful safety professional. Here aresome important things to consider. Are youmotivated by a desire to help others? Doyou believe that it is important to serve yourneighbors and the community? Do you placea high value on health and the quality of life?Such motivation would help you be asuccessful safety professional, and at thesame time, provide a great sense ofsatisfaction in a job well done.

Successful safety professionals must developgood skills in working with people andcommunicating with them. Many of theseskills are gained during college and aftera degree is completed. As a safetyprofessional, you work with practicallyeveryone in an organization. You should feelcomfortable in talking and working withpeople of all ages and backgrounds.

Safety science is challenging, and the collegecourse work can be difficult, but interesting.You will do quite well if you have good studyhabits and are willing to work hard. A collegedegree is essential for most safety professionalpositions. The more safety science coursesyou complete, the better prepared you willbe for a safety career. Safety professionalsmust understand many technical concepts, soif you like science and mathematics, you willprobably find safety science interesting.

You may be one of those students who arenot especially outstanding in any one particularacademic area, but you are an excellentorganizer. You may enjoy planning andcarrying out activities of all sorts, and whenone event is completed, you are off to startplanning the next one. These are interests andskills that can help you become a successfulmanager in an organization. Managers set upprograms to achieve agreed-upon objectivesand draw together other parts of theorganization to work on carrying them out.Many safety professionals hold positions asmanagers, so planning and organization skillsare very important.

You may be absolutely certain about thecareer you want to pursue. You may not besure even after you graduate from college.Being uncertain about a career is normal. Itis quite common to change majors afterstarting college.

While you may view the safety profession asbeing rather specialized, an undergraduatesafety curriculum is actually rather broad.

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Many colleges have a program that exposesyou to a broad range of courses and fields ofstudy. Such a program can help you find thoseactivities and ideas that interest you the most.Undergraduate safety curriculums require arelatively wide assortment of courses. Thisprovides a reasonably good preparation forentering business or industry in any functionalarea.

You will complete business courses as wellas mathematics and science courses if youare a student in safety science. You will alsotake courses in communications and in theuse of computers. These are subjects thatwill have a high value, even if you should laterdecide to switch majors.

Most safety science curriculums offerinternship possibilities so that you can workin a safety-related position before yougraduate. Internships also create opportunitiesto strengthen a resume, to be morecompetitive for positions, and to demonstrateyour capabilities to potential employers.

An internship is the ultimate test that you canuse to answer the question, Should I becomea safety professional?

ASSE publishes guidelines for academicsafety internship programs. The ASSEstandard covers scope/purpose/application/exceptions, definitions, general requirements,development of evaluation criteria, internshipcompensation and legal implications, andprogram evaluation. Employers should referto the Guidelines for a Safety InternshipProgram in Industry article by Lon H.Ferguson in the April 1998 issue ofProfessional Safety.

Many people change to the safety professionfrom other departments or fields, such ashuman resources, engineering, quality control,nursing, and production management. Mid-career changes to safety are common.

University courses offered in the evening, onweekends, and online enable adult learnersto pursue masters degrees in safety. Thisroad to professionalism provides opportunitiesto both broaden and deepen skills demandedby the marketplace. It also provides aneffective path for those entering the field fromother career areas.

How to Become aSafety Professional

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This section details the stages of educationand training necessary to become a safetyprofessional and how to continue practicingto accelerate the rate of success after enteringthe field.

The Board of Certified Safety Professionalsoffers a Career Paths in Safety brochurethat addresses the education, experience,typical job roles, and recommendedcertification options at various levels (e.g.,basic, technician/technologist, andprofessional) of a safety career. This brochureis located online at www.bcsp.org/downloads or may be requested from BCSP.

High School Preparation

Any young person considering a career as asafety professional should take collegepreparation courses while in high school.Since the safety professional position isinterdisciplinary, it is important to have abroad background in science andmathematics, and to develop goodcommunication skills. Safety professionalsneed knowledge in biology, chemistry andphysics. They often use problem-solvingskills to identify, analyze, and controlhazards, and frequently work withengineering specialists.

Here are some good ways to learn about thesafety profession: Talk to safety professionals about their

work. Visit safety professionals at their places

of work and see what the job is all about.

Read about safety problems, accidentsor disasters in newspapers andmagazines and consider how theseevents could have been prevented.

Do a science project on workplace safetyor health, consumer product safety,traffic safety, fire protection, safety signs/equipment, or some similar subject.

Visit industrial plants on field trips andask questions about safety programs.

In selecting an academic program, one shouldconsider whether the college or universityholds institutional accreditation from anaccreditation body recognized by the Councilfor Higher Education Accreditation(www.chea.org) or the U.S. Department ofEducation (www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation). In addition, specific degreeprograms may hold accreditation as a safetydegree from a commission of theAccreditation Board for Engineering andTechnology or ABET (www.abet.org).

Degrees, and the institutions that offer them,should be chosen carefully. There aredegrees from colleges and universities thatdo not hold accreditation from a bodyrecognized by the U.S. Department ofEducation or CHEA. There are alsounrecognized degrees from institutionsidentified as diploma mills (or similarunacceptable institutions) by the U.S.government or any U.S. state government.The safety profession views use of diplomamill degrees as unethical. The followingURLs may be helpful as individuals research

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degrees, colleges, and universities:www.ed.gov/students/prep/college/diplomamills/index.html, www.chea.org/d e g r e e m i l l s / f r m S t a t e s . h t m ,www.michigan.gov/documents /Non-accreditedSchools_78090_7.pdf,a n d www. o s a c . s t a t e . o r.us /o da/unaccredited.html.

There are a number of colleges that offerdegrees in safety and related specialties.Students may visit the American Society ofSafety Engineers web site to search theCollege and University Directory, Safetyand Related Degree Programs(www.asse.org/colluni_directory.htm). Itlists colleges that offer degrees in safety andrelated fields and tells which safety programsare accredited by a commission of ABET.

The Board of Certified Safety Professionalsoffers the BCSP Database of Safety andRelated Academic Programs in the UnitedStates (www.bcsp.org/schools) online.Individuals can look up academic programsby field, program level, or state. Thedatabase assists those preparing for oradvancing in the safety profession to locateacademic programs at accredited U.S.colleges and universities.

Directories of college and universityprograms that are found in bookstores maynot list safety degree programs, but mayprovide other valuable information about aschool. Today, most schools offer detailsabout their campus, programs, and courseson their web sites. Information about costs,facilities, entrance requirements and otherdetails can help students select a school.Students can write to or email the schoolsand safety degree programs that interestthem. The schools will provide additionalinformation about their requirements,programs and faculty.

Students can talk to their guidance counselors,teachers and others who have been to collegefor advice in selecting one. They can helpstudents decide whether a community college(two-year programs leading to an associatedegree) or a college or university (four-yearprograms leading to a bachelors degree) isright for them.

Community and TechnicalColleges

A number of community and junior collegesoffer an associate degree in safety or a relatedfield (such as fire protection). Peoplegraduating from these programs are hired forlimited positions in safety. They may helpmanufacturers, construction companies orother industries meet OSHAs hazard controlstandards.

For some people, two-year degree programsare a good choice. They allow individuals tostart working in a field at an earlier stage ofeducation. They provide a way for many tobegin a career change. There is usually amore flexible class schedule for those whowork while going to school. Many workersattain an associate degree on a part-time basisand their employer may even pay for theirstudies. Community and technical collegesusually cost less than four-year colleges anduniversities. However, a two-year degree maynot allow advancement to the morechallenging positions in this field.

If students transfer to a four-year safetyprogram, they may not get full credit forassociate degree courses. Students shouldcheck with the four-year programs they mightwant to attend later. These programs advisestudents what courses they require and howmuch credit they allow. Also, they can advisestudents about standards they use inaccepting transfer students from two-yearprograms.

Four-Year Colleges andUniversities

A number of four-year colleges anduniversities offer undergraduate degrees insafety. According to a BCSP Salary Surveyconducted in 2000, over 90% of those CSPsin the safety profession have earned at leasta bachelors degree. About 30% of thoseentering the field have a bachelors degreein safety, while many move into safety fromother disciplines (engineering, business,physical sciences, etc.) and later pursue safetystudies.

A bachelors degree in safety provides a solidfoundation for work as a safety professional.A major in safety typically includespreparatory courses and professional coursesoutside of the major. To prepare for the safetyprofessional courses, college students arenormally required to take courses inmathematics through beginning calculus,statistics, chemistry with laboratory work,physics with laboratory work, humanphysiology or biology, and introductorycourses in business management, engineeringmechanics and processes, speech,composition and psychology. Students insafety must also acquire good computer skills,including the ability to use the Internet andimportant business and safety softwarepackages.

Most preparatory courses are taken duringfreshmen and sophomore years. Professionalcourses are usually taken during junior andsenior years, along with some electives.Professional safety courses include safetyand health program management, design ofengineering hazard controls, industrialhygiene and toxicology, fire protection,ergonomics, environmental safety and health,system safety, accident/incident investigation,product safety, construction safety,

educational and training methods, assessmentof safety performance, and behavioralaspects of safety. Students may also elect totake specialty courses beyond the requiredcourses.

Most safety degree programs offerexperiential education courses. These coursesprovide opportunities for students to workwith safety professionals in companies or inpositions that offer developmentalexperience. These internship programsusually involve academic credit and mayinclude pay from the company ororganization with whom the student works.

Students seeking to enter safety degreeprograms should carefully review severalschools, their program offerings, entrancerequirements and the financial assistanceprovided. Some programs have enrollmentcaps and are quite selective in the numbersof students accepted.

Graduate Study in SafetyScience

About 40% of todays safety professionalshave advanced degrees. Some of those withan advanced degree in safety graduated witha bachelors degree in a non-safety field.They may use a masters degree in safety toprepare for and enter the safety profession.Some who get their safety preparation at thebachelors level also pursue graduate studyin safety or a safety-related specialty, suchas industrial hygiene, environmental science,public health or ergonomics. Some peoplework toward advanced degrees in relatedfields, such as business and engineering, thatwill enhance their career opportunities.

Several masters degree programs in safetyare accredited by the Applied SciencesAccreditation Commission of ABET or

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another of its commissions. Typically, studentsentering these programs must have completedcertain undergraduate safety courses, or theywill be required to complete someundergraduate courses to adequately preparethemselves for advanced courses in safety.

Graduate programs can offer different safetyspecialties besides advanced preparation insafety science. These specialties may be inmanagement, engineering and technology,environmental health, fire protection,ergonomics, industrial hygiene, or other areasof safety science.

A few schools offer doctoral studies in safetyscience or related subjects such as industrialhygiene, public health, fire protectionengineering, environmental health orenvironmental studies. Most safety positionsdo not require a doctoral degree. However,teaching positions at universities and colleges,research positions, and some high-leveladvisory positions for large employers andgovernment agencies may require a doctoraldegree. Doctoral programs, including thosein safety, are not accredited because eachstudent has a customized program. Schoolsare free to develop their own specializationsand degree requirements, but most involvesome training in research methods andteaching theory.

Financial assistance at the graduate levelvaries considerably by program. In someprograms, nearly all graduate students haveteaching or research assistantships withtuition and fee waivers included. Someprograms offer scholarships or tuition and feewaiver assistance. Some have work-studyprograms, or have links with governmentagencies or companies that allow students towork and attend school at the same time.

Certificate Programs

Certificate programs are a relatively new kindof academic program. A student mustcomplete a sequence of courses defined bythe school. Upon finishing, the studentreceives a certificate of completion. Theseare not academic degrees or certifications.They focus on helping people get started inor convert to a particular field of study. Thereare undergraduate certificate programs thatare typically shorter and involve less than therequirements for an associate degree. Thereare also graduate certificate programs thathelp someone with a degree in one field ofstudy to learn the basics of another field ofstudy without committing to all requirementsfor a masters degree. During the last severalyears, several schools have started to offercertificate programs.

Online Courses and Degrees

With the growth of the Internet, more andmore schools are offering their academiccourses and complete programs online. Thenumber available continues to rise. Thisdelivery method allows students who mustcontinue to work or who do not have a suitableacademic safety program nearby to completepreparation for work as a safety professional.By checking with a school, one can find outif courses and programs or degrees areavailable online.

Licensing and Certification

Because the work of safety professionals hasa direct impact on public safety and health,government organizations, employers andthose awarding contracts are concerned thatsafety professionals be fully qualified andcompetent to do their jobs. Safetyprofessionals may therefore need other

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credentials in addition to their educationaldegree. These credentials might includelicenses, registration and professionalcertification. To date, no state requires safetyprofessionals to be licensed in order topractice. However, some states require fireprotection engineers to be registered.

The safety profession has established its ownprofessional certification program to providesome means for assessing professionalcompetency. The Board of Certified SafetyProfessionals, established in 1969, setscompetency standards for professional safetypractice, evaluates candidates qualifications,tests their knowledge through examinationsand offers the Certified Safety Professional(CSP) certification to those who meet allrequirements.

Applicants who meet the model academicrequirement (a bachelors degree in safetyfrom an ABET-accredited program), haveneeded experience, and pass a two-levelexamination receive the CSP credential.Applicants must have at least an associatesdegree in safety or a bachelors degree inany field. In addition, candidates not meetingthe model education requirement must havemore than the minimum of four years ofprofessional safety experience.

The first examination (Safety Fundamentals)toward the CSP certification is designed totest basic knowledge appropriate toprofessional safety practice. Studentsgraduating from accredited four-year safetydegree programs are permitted to take thisexamination during their last semester. Certainprogram graduates are granted a waiver ofthis examination and receive the GraduateSafety Practitioner (GSP) designation. Thesecond examination (ComprehensivePractice) focuses on applications of typicalprofessional practice.

Those holding the CSP certification must berecertified every five years, either throughre-examination or by meeting standards forcontinuing education and professionalpractice. These standards encourage thesafety professional to be active in theprofession and to maintain the necessaryprofessional skills to practice effectively.

Today, professional certification through theCSP credential has become important tosafety professionals. A majority of employersprefer or require applicants for safetypositions to hold the CSP certification,particularly for mid-career or senior positions.An ASSE Compensation Study conducted in2003 shows that those holding the CSP earnabout $17,000 more per year than their non-certified peers.

More and more government laws, regulationsand standards include the CSP certification.Contracts involving construction and otherservices often include requirements thatcontractors employ safety professionals withthe CSP certification. While there are manytitles and designations in safety, industrialhygiene, environmental practice andergonomics in the United States only a feware accredited by national organizationswhich set standards for voluntary, peercertifications. The CSP credential holdsaccreditation under national and internationalorganizations including the NationalCommission for Certifying Agencies(NCCA), and ANSI/ISO/IEC 17024. Manyemployers and government agencies rely onaccredited certifications in standards foremployment and contracts.

The Occupational Health and SafetyTechnologist (OHST) and ConstructionHealth and Safety Technician (CHST) areparaprofessional certifications which canserve as stepping stones to the CSP credential

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(see more information about thesecertifications on page 50 or atwww.cchest.org).

Professional Societies

A good way to stay current in safety is tobelong to a professional society. Suchorganizations have journals, conferences,symposiums and continuing educationcourses, while some may have local chapters.Some societies, such as the American Societyof Safety Engineers, have student sectionsat schools offering safety degrees. Thesesections have activities to help students learnabout the safety profession. Some activitiesin local chapters create opportunities to meetpracticing safety professionals. Thesecontacts often lead to internships andpermanent jobs. At a minimum, thesecontacts offer insight into current practice orthe ability to visit safety professionals in theirjob settings.

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Areas Where SafetyProfessionals Can Specialize

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Safety professionals work in many differentindustries, job settings and specialties. Thesummaries below give examples for manyof them.

Occupational Safety

Many safety professionals work inmanufacturing and production operations tohelp ensure that working conditions and workmethods are safe and healthful foremployees. Nearly every large plant orindustrial facility employs at least one full-time safety professional. Once safetyprofessionals recognize hazards, theyevaluate them, develop recommendations forcontrolling them and advise members of themanagement team. They also must be ableto advise management about the best meansfor complying with regulations.

Occupational safety professionals mustobserve work activities and identify hazardsin a wide variety of operations, such as lifting,working in high places, handling chemicals,operating machinery, storing explosives,excavating and repairing or maintainingequipment. They try to formulate plans andprograms to prevent these hazards fromhappening. Occupational safety professionalsmust know health, safety and fire protectionregulations which apply to any operations.

Occupational safety professionals preserveand protect human and facility resources inthe workplace and security is a key issue anda growing concern. The occupational safetyprofessional may be called upon to establish

security guidelines and take precautions toprotect property and workers.

They must prepare recommendations andadvise managers about the best means forcomplying with standards, reducing hazardsand making production activities safer.Occupational safety professionals need to begood communicators, since they often interactwith employees, supervisors and managerswhen checking for hazards or working onoptions to control them. They often enlistemployee participation in these activities.Frequently, they seek to persuade managersand employees to change operations orprocedures and to spend money to makepeople safer.

In addition, to be effective, the occupationalsafety professional must be a part of themanagement team which improvesproductivity at the facility.

Industrial Hygiene

Industrial hygienists specialize in workersexposure to chemical and physical hazardscreated by industrial processes. For example,they might evaluate exposure to airborne leadcreated by a battery manufacturing process,or they might measure the exposure to noiseproduced by a ripsaw in a furnituremanufacturing shop.

Most safety professionals have someresponsibilities in their practice for industrialhygiene that may not make them a specialist.

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An industrial hygienist is trained to recognizehealth hazards, to evaluate their extent andto control them if an overexposure exists. Anindustrial hygienist evaluates hazards bystudying the process, measuring the exposureand comparing samples to acceptableexposure levels.

The control of overexposure might involvechanging the process to eliminate the hazard,substituting a less hazardous material,isolating the process or the worker,ventilating the process, or providing personalprotection (for example, gloves andrespirators) to the worker.

Industrial hygienists generally have anundergraduate degree in engineering or thephysical, chemical, biological or safetysciences. Most industrial hygienists have amasters degree in industrial hygiene. Theymost often work for industries, governmentagencies and environmental consulting firms.A few industrial hygienists work in academicsettings as teachers and researchers. Workingin this setting generally requires a doctoraldegree.

Industrial hygienists do not generally needto be licensed to pursue their profession.However, most industrial hygiene specialistshold the Certified Industrial Hygiene (CIH)certification. This requires at least five yearsof relevant experience before the successfulcompletion of an examination. CIHs mustmaintain their certification (e.g., recertifyevery five years) by attending professionalmeetings, courses, conferences or othersimilar professional development activities.

Environmental Safety

Protecting the environment in the U.S. is amassive effort being conducted on severalfronts. Businesses of all sorts are trying toeither eliminate the release of materials that

can harm the public or damage theenvironment or recover and recycle excessmaterials for environmental conservation.Another effort is being made all acrossAmerica to clean up waste sites where toxicsubstances were spilled or have been dumpedin the past. These efforts require the controlof environmental safety and health hazards.Environmental safety work requires extensiveknowledge of OSHA standards, othergovernment or client safety regulations, andan understanding of hazards and controls(that is, construction, ergonomics, fireprotection, occupational safety, industrialhygiene and environmental health). Inaddition, environmental safety requires aworking knowledge of environmental lawsand regulations, such as the ComprehensiveEnvironmental Response Compensation andLiability Act (CERCLA), the ResourceConservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), theToxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) andothers. Environmental safety professionalscan gain this knowledge from undergraduateor graduate studies, extensive on-siteexperience, or a combination of both.

There are three general areas where theenvironmental safety professional can pursuecareer opportunities: Industrial/Government Sector: People

can serve as environmental safetyprofessionals for a specific facility ororganization involved with OSHA,Department of Transportation (DOT),and Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) compliance, and state health andsafety and environmental regulations.Additional duties may includeoverseeing the health and safety of on-site contractors.

Consulting: People can work for designengineering firms and perform health andsafety functions for their government orindustrial projects. They can sell healthand safety services to outside clients,

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including the private and public sector.Additional health and safetyresponsibilities may involve overseeingthe health and safety of contractors whenan engineering firm provides constructionmanagement or engineering services toa client.

Contracting: This role involves beingemployed by and providing in-househealth and safety services to remediationcontractors who actually clean uphazardous waste sites. Working in thisarena requires an extensive constructionbackground, since it involves hazardouswaste activities coupled with heavyconstruction work.

In all three situations, it is desirable for theenvironmental safety professional to pursueprofessional certifications, specifically theCertified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) and theCertified Safety Professional (CSP). Manygovernment and private sector remediationprojects require that the person administeringthe health and safety program be certified asa CIH or a CSP. Consulting firms also valuecertifications because it makes the individual,and hence the firm, more attractive whenselling services.

It is desirable to have these certifications inany situation where an organization isoverseeing contractors and the projectspecifications require contractors to havecertified personnel. Although not alwaysrequired, it adds credibility if the primarycontractor also employs certified personnel.

Environmental safety specialists needcomprehensive knowledge of safety,industrial hygiene and environmental areas.With this wide range of knowledge, they canpursue a career in other health and safetyspecialties.

Fire Protection Engineering

Fire protection engineering is one of manyinteresting and challenging professionalsafety specialty areas. These safetyspecialists use the basic tools of engineeringand science to help protect people, propertyand operations from fire and explosions.Employers and personnel recruitersconsistently report good job opportunities withcompetitive starting salaries for fire protectionengineers.

Fire protection engineers can be called on toprovide a broad range of services. Someperform fire safety evaluations of buildingsand industrial complexes to determine therisk of fire losses and how best to preventthem. Others design systems thatautomatically detect and suppress fires andexplosions, as well as fire alarm, smokecontrol, emergency lighting, communicationand exit systems. Fire protection engineersperform research on materials and consumerproducts, or do computer modeling of fireand smoke behavior. Others investigate firesor explosions that have occurred, preparetechnical reports or provide expert courtroomtestimony in legal cases.

Fire protection engineers work at the nervecenters of large corporations. They overseethe design and operational fire safety ofcomplex manufacturing facilities in multi-national business networks. They also workfor insurance companies, surveying majorfacilities and performing research, testing andanalysis.

Fire protection engineers can be found at alllevels of government, including civilian andmilitary agencies, local fire departments,building code departments and state firemarshal offices. They work for architecturaland engineering firms and specialtyconsulting groups. Interesting jobs are

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available in trade associations, testinglaboratories and at colleges and universities.

Thanks to the extensive fire research done inrecent decades, fire protection engineeringis making the transition from being basedonly on practical experience to an excitingengineering discipline that incorporates state-of-the-art science and computer capabilities.A few universities offer fire protection or fireprotection engineering degree programs atthe bachelors, masters and doctoral levels.To obtain information on fire protectioncareers, students may contact the Society ofFire Protection Engineers. (See Resources,page 45.)

Ergonomics

Ergonomics is the science of fitting the jobto the person. Most safety professionals mustdeal with ergonomics in general safetypractice. Ergonomics can be a specialty aswell. Ergonomists (also called human factorsengineers) specialize in the relationshipsbetween people and their work. They designthe work environment (such as facilities,machines, furniture, equipment, work-stations, tools and work methods) to matchjob demands with workers capabilities,limitations and expectations. A fundamentalprinciple of ergonomics is to designequipment and jobs to prevent errors,accidents, injuries or harm.

Ergonomists work on a wide variety of safetyand health hazards. Many ergonomists dealwith the physical aspects of work, such as: Designing lifting tasks to reduce the risk

of back injuries. Designing machines and equipment to

reduce the force, frequency and flexionof repeated tasks that eventually injurejoints, muscles and nerves. An exampleis designing machine guards that protectworkers while still allowing smooth,efficient motion.

Designing chairs that promotecomfortable and healthy work postures.

Designing work-rest schedules onphysically demanding jobs to preventexcessive fatigue.

Ergonomists who specialize in solving theseproblems usually have a strong backgroundin engineering, with additional course workin physiology, anatomy and biomechanics.

Other ergonomists focus on thepsychological and mental aspects of worksuch as: Designing effective warning labels to

promote the safe operation of machinesand tools.

Designing displays (gauges, dials,alarms, etc.) and controls (buttons,knobs, steering wheels, etc.) for vehiclesand other complex machines to reducethe chance of operator error andaccidents.

Designing training aids (instructionbooks, videos, simulators, etc.) to teachworkers the proper and safe way toperform their jobs.

These ergonomists usually have a strongbackground in psychology with additionaltraining in engineering or design.

Most ergonomists have at least a mastersdegree, since there are few undergraduateprograms in ergonomics. Typically,ergonomists have undergraduate degrees inengineering or psychology before pursuingspecialization in ergonomics at the graduatelevel. However, students with undergraduatetraining in safety sciences can also beconsidered for graduate training inergonomics.

Career opportunities exist in industry(product design, work process and methodsdesign), government (OSHA complianceofficers), insurance companies (loss control

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representatives), private consulting andacademic settings (research and teaching).

System Safety

System safety specialists typically work withmajor new technological programs.Aerospace, military, medical, scientificallyadvanced projects and high-tech industrieshave relied on the system safety specialist todevelop concepts, designs and products thathave a high reliability of operation and lowlevel of risk.

Have you ever marveled at the complexityof the space shuttle? Have you read aboutthe complexity of software that manages thecontrols in todays aircraft and guides a planesafely through the skies? Have you everthought about the management of materialsflowing through chemical plants and therange of temperatures, pressures andchemical steps they experience whileachieving the desired material? Each of thesedevices and processes works due to a highdegree of reliability. In each case, systemsafety specialists reviewed the concept,design and construction of these magnificentmachines and processes to ensure that theywork correctly every time, without harm tousers, operators or the equipment itself.

System safety is an analytical field, born ofa high-tech need to develop quality productsthat have a minimum potential for failure.The system safety specialist reviews thedesign concept to identify the hazardsassociated with a human or machine failure.During design, the specialist (sometimesreferred to as a system safety engineer)prescribes modifications to the design, oridentifies the need to install redundant orbackup systems to ensure reliability duringoperation. During testing, system safetyspecialists observe tests-in-progress or testresults to see firsthand how a system

interfaces with its environment. In recentyears, this specialist has also been called onto ensure that safe decommissioning ofoutmoded systems occurs. Today they alsoanalyze software for potential faults whichcan cause harm to people or the systems.Some specialize in analyzing electricalcircuits and electrical systems and equipmentfor harmful events. Some work mainly withmechanical equipment and powered systems.Others work with chemical process plants toensure that failures do not cause fire,explosions or releases of hazardous materialsinto the community.

The system safety specialist uses a varietyof tools to identify possible system faults orother hazards that may lead to the failure ofa product during its use. These traditionalanalytical tools consist of preliminary hazardanalyses (PHA), failure mode and effectsanalyses (FMEA) and fault tree analysis(FTA). Newer tools, such as hazard andoperability studies (HAZOPS), have beendeveloped to meet the demands of newapplications such as chemical processes andindustrial manufacturing methods.

If you enjoy asking who, what, when, where,why, how, and if, you may have an aptitudefor system safety work.

You will also need a technical backgroundthat is either general or involves special areasof knowledge, such as mechanicalequipment, electrical equipment andelectronics, computer hardware and software,chemical processes, management methodsand procedures, maintenance, etc. Systemsafety specialists combine knowledge of thesystems and knowledge of analyticalmethods with hazard recognition, evaluationand control knowledge.

The system safety specialist will be in demandin the foreseeable future to protect employeesand the public, the environment and theorganizations investment in equipment,processes and facilities. This specialist willhave opportunities to advance throughtechnical or management career ladders.

Risk Management

Organizations of all kinds must minimize theadverse effects of accidental losses at themost reasonable cost. To do this, they rely onthe knowledge and services of risk managers.Virtually all large organizations, and manysmaller ones, maintain a risk managementdepartment to reduce the likelihood and sizeof losses (known as risk control) and to payfor those losses that cannot be prevented (alsoknown as risk finance). Risk management isan integral part of modern organizationalmanagement. By protecting a companyagainst loss, the risk manager helps it to boostits operating efficiency and meet its strategicgoals.

Risk managers are employed by industrial,service, non-profit and public sectororganizations. For example, they serveairlines, banks, chemical and othermanufacturers, government agencies,municipalities, retailers, hospitals, schooldistricts and universities.

As organizations differ, so do the types ofrisks and losses they may encounter. Forexample, in addition to protecting people,physical premises, and inventory, a retailstore risk manager seeks to minimizeshoplifting and vandalism. A factory usinghazardous equipment or substances isconcerned with employee safety and health.It may issue protective clothing andequipment and provide specialized trainingto employees.

The basic skills required of the risk managerinclude communications, analysis andproblem solving, management andleadership. First and foremost, risk managersmust be good communicators. They must becapable of coordinating and interacting withother departments. The position requiresregular contact with such departments asauditing, engineering, finance, humanresources, legal, research and development,safety and security.

Risk management also involves working withexternal sources, such as attorneys, brokers,consultants, insurance agents, insurers andother service providers. In addition tounderstanding these varied specialties, therisk manager must master the complexitiesof the organizations own operations.

A sound knowledge of insurancefundamentals and risk financing mechanismsis also essential. The risk manager must knowwhich potential losses can be retainedthrough some form of self-insurance andwhich risks need to be insured, for how muchand with which vendor. They recognizewhether claims are being handled properlyor not, and if appropriate insurance coverageis available.

The risk manager must also thoroughly grasploss control issues such as employee health,worker and product safety, propertysafeguards, security, fire prevention andenvironmental protection. The risk managermust be able to manage time and peopleskillfully by setting goals, planningstrategies, delegating tasks and forecastingand measuring results.

For a career in risk management, a bachelorsdegree with a broad business background isrecommended. A major in risk managementor insurance is highly desirable. Many

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additional fields of study are also appropriate,including safety and health, accounting,economics, engineering, finance, law,management and political science. In addition,many firms require candidates to have amasters degree in business administration(MBA) and to earn an Associate in RiskManagement (ARM) or other insurance orrisk designation.

Risk managers work for corporations, serviceproviders, government administrations andnumerous other public and privateorganizations. Some risk managers joininsurance companies, insurance brokeragefirms or consulting firms that provide riskmanagement services to clients. The structureof risk management departments varies withthe nature and size of the organization.

Loss Control, Loss Prevention,and Risk Control

Loss control, loss prevention, and risk controlare terms primarily used in the insuranceindustry. Insurance companies sellingworkers compensation, property, auto,liability, and other forms of business insuranceemploy safety professionals to conduct riskassessments to support underwriting(business selection and pricing process) andhelp their clients prevent incidents andaccidents that lead to insurance claims.

Each insurance company develops its ownprocess of risk assessment and safetyconsulting services around the kinds ofbusinesses that it insures. Insurance companysafety representatives provide these servicesto policyholders based on the terms andconditions of the insurance contract andservice agreement. The emphasis of thisservice is the prevention of injuries andillnesses to workers and the public, preventingcompany vehicle crashes, and avoidingproperty losses. This reduces costs,

benefiting both the policyholder and theinsurance company. Consulting strategiestypically include identifying and evaluatinghazardous exposures, developing plans tocontrol them, and providing follow-upservices to assist the customer withsuccessful implementation.

To identify accident exposures, loss controlrepresentatives analyze accidents or incidenttrends, and conduct work site riskassessments to identify potential hazardexposures. Their knowledge, research, andvast database of injury trends across a widevariety of industries and operations helpidentify potential loss exposures where theexposures may not be evident. The losscontrol representative then evaluates theexposures and develops recommendations toeliminate or reduce them. Once theserecommendations are implemented, the losscontrol representative follows up to evaluateeffectiveness and to determine if morechanges might be needed to further reducethe exposure.

Loss control representatives engage in a widearray of consulting activities, such as trainingemployees at all levels on safety, providingindustrial hygiene services, developing andevaluating safety programs, investigatingincidents, and providing technical advice onergonomics, construction safety, productsafety, environmental safety, fleet safety, andfire protection. Some loss controlrepresentatives specialize in these areas.

Another responsibility of insurance safetyrepresentatives is to assist the insurancecompanys underwriting department inevaluating the risk and level of control of thepolicyholders operations for specific typesof insurance coverage. This responsibilityallows the insurance company to select, price,and provide the appropriate coverages for thebusiness. This involves a continual evaluation

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of the policyholders accident rates andexposures, as well as their efforts to reducethe problems identified.

Because clients may be involved in a widerange of business activities, loss controlrepresentatives become familiar with manydifferent types of businesses and theirassociated hazards. The opportunity tospecialize in a variety of safety activities, aswell as to obtain experience in several typesof industries, makes loss control a veryrewarding career for safety professionals.

Chemical Process Safety

Many of the modern materials and essentialproducts we take for granted everyday aremade possible by the chemical industry. Fuels,food ingredients, pharmaceuticals, textiles,paper products, plastics and industrialchemicals are some chemical industryproducts. Each chemical product involves avery different chemical process, which is oneof the reasons why the chemical industry isvery dynamic. Each process has its ownstarting materials, processing equipment andoperating temperatures and pressuresbecause of this, each process has a uniqueset of hazards.

While manufacturing chemical products, it isthe responsibility of the chemicalmanufacturer to maintain a safe workingenvironment for employees and a safeenvironment for the people and communitiessurrounding their plants. The chemicalprocess safety professional plays a key rolein this responsibility.

Chemical process safety involves analyzingchemical processes to identify the potentialfor accidents. It also involves planning for thecontrol of unexpected releases and reactionsto avoid catastrophic losses. This is done sothat chemical companies can act to prevent

these accidents, and so that nearbycommunities can respond appropriately toincidents. And if they should happen, thecompanies and emergency responseorganizations are better prepared to handlethe consequences. Contingency planning alsohelps companies recover quickly and continuea reliable supply of vital products to themarketplace.

This discipline can be broken into four generalareas: assessment, technical support, trainingand management. It is the job of chemicalprocess safety professionals to assess achemical process in order to identify potentialhazards. They also provide technical supportto those who design new processes, and thosewho operate existing processes, so that theycan be aware of process hazards and takesteps to prevent chemical accidents fromoccurring. Chemical process safety alsoinvolves training employees who work withthe processes on how to recognize chemicalhazards, and prevent or respond to accidents.

These safety professionals may also becomeinvolved in process safety management. Thismeans that they coordinate a companyssafety efforts and work with other managersto help chemical process safety become moreefficient and effective.

Chemical process safety is still a fairly newfield. Its modern version began in the early1970s. It gained momentum in 1984 after achemical process disaster in Bhopal, Indiaresulted in the death of thousands of citizens.

Because this profession is so new,practitioners entering the field still have anopportunity to truly impact and shape thefuture of the discipline. Much progress hasbeen made within the last few years, butmuch more progress will occur in the nearfuture. Students entering the field now canbe a part of this development.

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Chemical process safety benefits industry bypreventing the types of accidents thatotherwise make the headlines and damagethe environment, destroy chemicalprocessing plants, and cause serious injuriesto employees. Chemical process safetybenefits society by reducing the possibilityof hazardous chemical releases uponcommunities or the environment. It also helpsthe chemical industry to find ways to safelymanufacture the products that are in demandby modern society.

In summary, chemical process safety is a goodcareer area to consider because it providesmany benefits to industry and to society andoffers many job opportunities, both technicaland managerial. It also will be rewarding tothe person who chooses to enter this safety-related specialty.

Construction Safety

Construction sites are as different from oneanother as are people. They vary in size fromsmall road repair jobs and buildingrenovations to the construction of hugeskyscrapers, enormous bridges and massivepower plants. But, they have at least one thingin common: large pieces of equipment, tonsof structural materials and dangerous heightswhich create safety and health hazards thatcan take a life in the blink of an eye. Theyalso require the presence of constructionworkers, whose health and well-being dependon the effectiveness of hazard controlprograms designed by construction safetyprofessionals.

Construction safety professionals recognizeand control a wide variety of safety, healthand fire hazards in unique and ever-changingwork environments. The need forconstruction safety professionals continuesto expand since construction is one of themost hazardous industries.

A construction safety practitioner could beemployed by a medium to large constructioncompany, a contractor trade organization, anorganized labor group, a government agency,an insurance company, an engineering firmor a consulting firm.

An undergraduate degree in safety combinedwith general construction managementcourses or construction experience will helpindividuals begin a career in this specialty.Working for a large construction companywill generally require periodic relocation orfrequent travel to project sites. Many largeconstruction companies also operate outsidethe U.S. With the expansion of the globalconstruction market, the need for constructionsafety professionals at sites outside the U.S.will increase.

Eight-hour days are normal for safetyprofessionals employed in the constructionindustry. But weather conditions,performance and completion deadlinesfrequently dictate extended work hours.

A large construction workplace is typicallysupervised by a management/engineeringcompany that employs a general contractor(GC) to erect, renovate or demolish astructure. The GC then employs andschedules the necessary specialty contractors,such as excavation, steel erection, masonry,mechanicals, roofing, carpentry, painters andothers, to perform specified tasks. Largeprojects could have ten or more sub-contractors working at one site at the sametime.

Because construction site organizations vary,a construction safety professional mustpossess the ability to communicateeffectively within an organization having avariety of management styles and a diversework force.

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Construction methods, equipment, workingconditions and materials continually changeon a construction site. Through weekly ormonthly work planning sessions andcontinuous monitoring of job sites and workgroups, safety professionals can identifyhazards early and ensure that controls forthem are in place as each kind of work begins.

If you enjoy fast-paced activities, constantdaily challenges outdoors, hands-on workingconditions, and minimal time working at adesk, you are likely to enjoy working inconstruction safety. If you can workeffectively with a variety of tradespeople, youwill appreciate the financial and personalrewards associated with good hard work andwill do well as a safety professional in theconstruction industry.

Institutional SafetyManagement

A career in institutional safety can present avariety of exciting and rewarding challenges.Institutional safety typically encompasseshazard control in organizations such ashospitals, correctional facilities (prisons andjails), research facilities or schools at alllevels.

Hospitals, correctional facilities anduniversities are typically large employers andare often part of large organizations. Thispresents the trained safety professional withthe opportunity for career enhancement andgrowth.

Hospitals and nursing homes face a widerange of government and industryregulations. For example, the JointCommission on Accreditation of HealthcareOrganizations has numerous self-regulatingstandards, including safety standards, for theindustry. National fire and building codesfor hospitals and nursing homes have many

safety provisions and become law whenadopted by federal, state and localgovernment. In addition, OSHA and EPAregulations affect this industry, as well.

The hospital safety professional also has theunique opportunity to work with people fro