The purpose of the University of Arizona's (UA) Industrial Hygiene (IH) Program is to provide Master's level graduate training in the core occupational safety and health area of IH. The Program began in 1978 and is housed in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health (MEZCOPH). There are three tracks: MPH, MS, and PhD; NIOSH support is requested only for the Master's degree programs (the ABET accredited MPH and the MS). The Program is guided by nine faculty members and an Industrial Advisory Committee made up of OSH/IH professionals from the region. There are currently nine masters' students and fourteen doctoral students in the program. The plan is to admit seven to eight new masters' students and three to five PhD students each year. A unique strength of the UA IH program is our focus on mining health and safety. Arizona and the Southwest have one of the richest endowments of copper and related commodities on the planet. The mineral resource development industry has a long history of occupational exposures that lead to workplace injury and illness. Solving these problems and providing a healthy and safe workplace is the role of the professional IH. The UA IH program is the only program of its kind in the Southwest so it must provide the bulk of the new IHs for the region. The Master's' programs require forty-two credit hours to graduate, usually accomplished in two years. Comprehensive coursework is provided in the key areas of IH including air monitoring theory and practice, occupational safety, physical exposures, toxicology and environmental health. Program graduates find employment as OSH professionals in industry, government, and academia. With education obtained in the program, and depending on their previous background, they can expect to sit for the CIH and/or CSP exam early in their career. Since 2011, six of our students have received prestigious scholarships from the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA). The program goals for the next budget period are: to continue to provide MPH and MS level IH training to increase the number of trained IHs, with a particular focus on the Southwest; to continue to provide training specific to exposures in the mining industry with opportunities for student internships and research projects; to maintain ABET accreditation; and to expand training, internship and student research opportunities focused on microbiological exposures. Diversity is a priority for the program, and the University will continue to support this through its emphasis on diversity recruiting throughout the southwest.
Occupational injury and illness affect millions of workers and their families every year, and are tremendous economic burdens on our society. Highly qualified, technically competent and passionate industrial hygienists are needed to meet our national goal to prevent occupational illness, injury and fatalities, as described in the DHHS Healthy People 2020.
