The Master of Science in Occupational Health degree - Industrial Hygiene (MSOH-IH) program, founded in 1985, is administered by the School of Population Health in the College of Health and Human Services at the University of Toledo ? Health Science Campus. Since 1996, the MSOH-IH program has been accredited by the Applied and Natural Science Accreditation Commission (ANSAC) of ABET, with the last cycle approved for the period 2014-2020. The primary goal of the MSOH-IH 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 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 safety and health specialists in the region. The MSOH-IH program adopted the ABET definition for Program Educational Objectives, describe what graduates are expected to attain within a few years after graduation. Program educational objectives are based on the needs of the program?s constituencies. The three Program Educational Objectives for the MSOH-IH program are: I) all 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; and, 3) when eligible, based on degrees and post-graduate work experience (i.e. 5 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 per year, with funding requested for the FT equivalent of three NIOSH trainees per year. Applicants to our Program are often employed full-time and our classes are offered in the evenings and Saturdays, thus NIOSH has allowed us to award the scholarships to both FT and PT students. The program expects 15-20 IH students to be enrolled in the Program annually over the project period. The IH program at the University of Toledo has filled a critical gap in the Northwest Ohio occupational safety and health 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 with a focus on prevention/mitigation of work-related human illnesses/ injuries via anticipation, recognition, evaluation, prevention, 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, who will be prepared for employment as highly qualified, appropriately educated, and trained occupational health and safety specialists in the Northwest Ohio region and elsewhere.
