UNIVERSIDAD DE PUERTO RICO, RECINTO DE CIENCIAS MDICAS UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO, MEDICAL SCIENCES CAMPUS FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS BIOSOCIALES Y ESCUELA GRADUADA DE SALUD PBLICA FACULTY OF BIOSOCIAL SCIENCES AND GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH Programa de Higiene Industrial Industrial Hygiene Program Departamento de Salud Ambiental Department of Environmental Health Project Summary The Industrial Hygiene Program from the University of Puerto Rico ? Medical Sciences Campus ? Graduate School of Public Health, submits its renewal application for the NIOSH Training Grant, entitled ?University of Puerto Rico ? Caribbean Center for Professional Industrial Hygiene Training?. This training program grant renewal application proposes to train a total expected number of fifty (50) industrial hygienists in the period comprised between 07/01/19 and 06/30/24. Academic training in Industrial Hygiene will be done according to a new recently approved curriculum that is strongly concentrated in IH courses on top of a strong foundation in Public Health. All Industrial Hygiene related courses have applied components and an emphasis on occupational hazard control and mitigation. Curriculum updates, modification and supervision will be one of Dr. Caporali?s responsibilities as Principal Investigator, and will be done in coordination with the other training program faculty and advisory board. This application proposes to surpass its past successful graduation rates (as it can be observed in the data tables attached) with a close academic advancement follow up with each trainee, and the implementation of a part time track for the working trainee. This application also proposes to increase its enrollment efforts with the involvement of first and second year trainees, along with program faculty, in several visits to be paid to different undergraduate academic training centers. The overall objective of this renewal application is to continue to provide Puerto Rico and the continental United States with highly trained, professional, mature, and technically proficient Spanish/English-speaking Industrial Hygienists. As depicted in the attached support letters, UPR-IH Program graduates are in high demand across all industry sectors in Puerto Rico and in some sectors in the continental United States. Through collaborative agreements such as the one signed in the Memorandum of Understanding attached to this proposal, UPR-IH Program intends to increase even more the applied component in almost all IH courses. Although the graduate degree in Industrial Hygiene at UPR does not require a thesis, the curriculum has strong research components embedded in its coursework and the fundamental requirement for all trainees to undergo formal training in the responsible conduct of research. All our trainees participate in research activities held in collaboration with the Sunshine Educational and Research Center at USF. All three full time program faculty are engaged in applied research, each in their areas of interest and expertise. Publication rates among faculty will be raised through federal support that has already been secured for service and research grants. Finally, the UPR-IH Program commitment with this renewal application is to objectively take UPR?s NIOSH supported Training Program to an even higher level and become a benchmarking program for those institutions interested in developing a highly technical Industrial Hygiene program. Es la nica Escuela en Puerto Rico acreditada por el Council on Education for Public Health The only School in Puerto Rico accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health PO BOX 365067 SAN JUAN PR 00936-5067 TEL: (787) 758-2525 EXTS. 1437, 1438 y 1439 ? FAX (787) 765-5593 Patrono con Igualdad de Oportunidad en el Empleo M/M/V/I Equal Employment Opportunity Employer M/W/V/D
Per Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4.3 out of every one hundred Puerto Rican workers (4.3% of the workforce) will suffer an occupational injury or illness every year. This high injury and illness incidence rate among Puerto Rican workers demonstrates the urgent need for the continuation of training and research in occupational health and safety in Puerto Rico. The mission of the University of Puerto Rico MSc Program in Industrial Hygiene is to train top quality general IH practitioners for industry or government agencies. The UPR-IH program is the only Industrial Hygiene Program that graduates fully bilingual industrial hygienists in the United States, and is committed to worker and community health as it is described in: this renewal application Training Program Plan; the attachment associated with our trainees work during Hurricane Maria?s response, recovery and mitigation (over 2,000 people trained on hazard identification and control after a hurricane, workers and community members alike); and the attached support letters to this application.
