The UPR Industrial Hygiene Program's goal is to train industrial hygienists for the growing need of these professionals, particularly on the Island. It is expected that this professional will contribute to mitigate the high incidence rate of occupational injuries and illnesses among the Puerto Rican workers. On the average 70,000 new occupational injuries and illnesses cases are registered each year. This program is the only industrial hygiene program on the Island. The program will also offer courses to other academic and continuing education programs within the School of Public Health. ? ? Additional goals pursued by the program include: serve as a local resource for information dissemination, continuing education and consulting services; to conduct applied and basic research in this field to contribute to the development of this discipline; and to develop a leadership role in this discipline on the Island. ? ? The training program will be a graduate program and the trainees will be granted the degree of Master of Science in Industrial Hygiene. The coursework will include: nineteen (21) credit-hours in public health, ten (10) credit-hours in environmental health and twenty-nine (32) credit-hours in industrial hygiene courses. Five (5) additional credit-hours are available for elective courses. The duration of the training program will be two (2) years. ? ? Training will be conducted by means of lectures, seminars, laboratory practices, field practices and research experiences. The Program has three full-time faculty members and several supporting faculty members from the Department of Environmental Health and the School of Public health. In addition, outside collaborators teach courses and give lectures to our students. ? ? Trainees will be recruited at the predoctoral level with a bachelor degree in natural sciences (chemistry, biology, physics general science or engineering). An admission index is used to select these candidates. The index is calculated based on the GPA, the GRE or equivalent (EXADEP), previous work experience, and an interview with program faculty. (Ten (10) new students will be admitted each year. Therefore at total of twenty full-time students will be enrolled in the Program each year. ? ? ? ?
