2012: Safety Leaders Look Ahead

A NIOSH-commissioned survey has found that employers plan to hire 25,000 EHS professionals over the next 5 years, but only 12,000 students are expected to graduate from academic programs related to occupational safety and health. With that kind of demand for EHS professionals, what challenges are facing the profession and what does the next 1-5 years look like?

EHS Today asked a group of EHS leaders – agency administrators and directors, association heads, manufacturing leaders, consultants, working EHS professionals, educators, etc. – what they feel are some of the greatest challenges facing either their organizations or the EHS profession, workers or employers in the coming year and how they plan to meet those challenges.

We had three, very open-ended questions for them:

• What are the challenges facing your organization and/or the practice of EHS in the coming year and what are you doing, as an individual or organization, to meet those challenges?
• What do you think will have the most impact on the practice of EHS in the next 5 years and why?
• Is EHS more or less important to corporations now than it was 5 years ago and why?

While reading what they have to say, why don’t you answer these questions for yourself, and see how your answers stack up to theirs?

What are the challenges facing your agency and the practice of EHS in the coming year and what are you doing, as an individual or organization, to meet those challenges?

Dr. John Howard, M.D., MPH, JD: director, NIOSH: In the broadest sense, the challenges of 2012 are likely to change very little from those of the past several years. We will continue to be tasked to use our limited resources wisely. We will continue to seek proper balance in our research to address the wide range of issues that demand our attention.

We will continue to face the challenge of addressing emerging concerns while continuing to work with partners to make further progress against the legacy problems that persist from the industrial practices of 40, 50 or more years ago. This will mean completing next steps on several ambitious projects. These include moving toward a final Criteria Document on diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione, moving to finalize the Current Intelligence Bulletin on carbon nanotubes and taking next steps toward issuing a final strategy on emergency responder health surveillance. These goals also include pursuing discussion and review of our cancer and Recommended Exposure Limits assessment, and working with partners to address the research needs outlined in our recent Asbestos Research Roadmap.

Source : InsuranceNewsNet.com