The Master of Science in Occupational Health degree - Industrial Hygiene program ((MSOH-IH) was originally founded in 1985 and currently is offered by the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine in the College of Medicine and Life Sciences at the University of Toledo Health Science Campus. This IH Program has been continuously accredited by the Applied Science Accreditation Commission - Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ASAC-ABET) for full (6- year) cycles since1996; with the last cycle approved for the period 2014-2020. The primary goal of the Program is to provide master-level education and training to full- and part-time graduate students and members of the public for the purpose of increasing their knowledge, comprehension, skills and attitudes essential to the advancement of occupational health and safety science, practice and research. This is accomplished via a combination of theoretical, practical and applied (i.e. case-based; problem-based) classroom, laboratory, and field teaching and research activities. The program educates and trains individuals mainly from Northwest Ohio region. In turn, graduates are employed as occupational health and safety specialists in the region. In addition, the program accepts students from outside the region and several alumni are employed in other areas throughout the USA, Canada, and Middle East countries. The Industrial Hygiene program adopted the ABET definition for Program Educational Objectives, that is, what the program graduates will be qualified to practice at the time of graduation and what most graduates will be able to achieve (e.g. certification; advanced degree; job promotion) a few years after graduation. The three Program Educational Objectives for the MSOH-IH program are: (1) AII graduates are expected to be qualified to practice comprehensive industrial hygiene. (2) Most graduates are expected to practice in the field of Industrial Hygiene or related areas of Environmental and/or Occupational Health and Safety and to meet the relevant and appropriate needs of their employers. (3) When eligible, based on degrees and post-graduate work experience (i.e. 4 years post-graduation), most graduates who pursue applicable certification in occupational health and safety (i.e. CIH; CSP; CHMM) will pass. The program is designed to educate and train 15-20 full-time (FT) or part-time (PT) students (~8 FTE) per year, with funding requested for the FT equivalent of 5 NIOSH trainees per year. Because the applicants to our Program are usually employed full-time and our classes are offered in the evenings and Saturdays, the NIOSH originally allowed us to award the scholarships to both FT and PT students. Since the last round of TPG funding (2009-2014) of the Program by NIOSH/CDC, the program has graduated 25 industrial hygienists (25/5=5/yr); 15 of those (60%; 3/yr), FT or PT, have been awarded scholarship from the funding. The program expects 16-17 IH students to be enrolled in the Program during the Fall semester 2014. As documented in this application, the IH program (a core discipline) at the University of Toledo has filled a critical gap in the Northwest Ohio workforce needs. .
The MSOH-IH program at the University of Toledo addresses a NIOSH 'core discipline', a DHHS Healthy People 2020 Occupational Safety and Health initiative, and the Institution's and Department's Missions, with focus on prevention/mitigation of work-related human illnesses/ injuries via anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of applicable hazardous agents and factors. The requested funds for 5 years will be used to provide scholarships to graduate students majoring in Industrial Hygiene. .
