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PROFESSIONAL GROWTH
ALICE L. GREIFE, PhD, CIH, FAIHA, recently retired as dean of the University of Central Missouri’s College of Health, Science and Technology. She is a member of AIHA’s Academic Accreditation Panel.

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Have Your Say on Proposed IH Program Criteria
BY ALICE L. GREIFE
One of the roles played by AIHA’s Academic Accreditation Panel (AAP) is to ensure the quality and caliber of industrial hygiene university programs accredited by ABET. At regular intervals, AAP reviews and recommends changes to the criteria for accredited programs to ensure that they align with current priorities in the profession.
Last year, proposed changes to the IH program criteria for ABET-accredited IH programs were made available for public comment. Comments were received through various routes, including the ABET website, Catalyst, The Synergist, and the AAP public meeting at AIHA Connect 2024 in Columbus, Ohio. The AAP thoughtfully and carefully reviewed, considered, and discussed all public comments and input regarding the proposed changes and edited them to reflect this feedback. These edited criteria are now available, and AAP has launched an online survey to collect feedback. Synergist readers, AIHA members, OEHS professionals, and other stakeholders are welcome to review the new criteria and make comments.
RESOURCES FOR UPDATING THE CRITERIA Several discipline-specific professional resources informed the currently proposed changes to the IH program criteria. The first and foremost resource used was the current CIH exam blueprint. The CIH exam and the exam blueprint are maintained and administered by the Board for Global EHS Credentialing. BGC is the premier global credentialing body for industrial hygiene and similar professionals who protect and enhance people’s health, safety, and environment at work and in their communities. The CIH exam blueprint was therefore used to establish the minimum requirements of knowledge and skills needed as an IH practitioner.
Last year, many commenters focused on the removal of general chemistry and organic chemistry from the proposed admission requirements for master’s-level programs. The current admission requirements are very prescriptive and do not allow programs to determine the areas of chemistry that best meet each program’s individual needs. The proposed IH program criteria allow much greater flexibility for programs to meet the needs of their constituents and determine the areas of chemistry that provide the best foundation for preparing their students to enter the field. Additionally, neither organic nor general chemistry are listed as a minimum knowledge requirement on the CIH exam blueprint.
Several discipline-specific professional resources informed the currently proposed changes to the IH program criteria.
The other resources used to develop the proposed curriculum were AIHA’s Principles of Good Practice (PGP) initiative, research on EHS programs conducted by Shirley Parsons, AIHA’s Core Competencies for the Practice of Industrial/Occupational Hygiene, and informal input from practitioners and IH/OEHS academics.
The PGP initiative documents IH professional practices and knowledge that have been determined to protect workers and communities reliably and effectively from unacceptable risks. Shirley Parsons is a global professional services firm specializing in environmental health and safety. In 2020 and 2021, Shirley Parsons distributed two surveys: one asked EHS academic program graduates to indicate how applicable the existing ABET criteria were to their duties as practicing professionals, and the other asked EHS employers to share what competencies were most important to their organizations and how applicable the ABET criteria were to the EHS, safety, and industrial hygiene professions. The Core Competencies for the Practice of Industrial/Occupational Hygiene publication was initially prepared in 2012 as a joint effort of the Academy of Industrial Hygiene (AIH), AIHA, ACGIH, and the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH, the forerunner of BGC). The 2018 version revised the original document and was recently updated by a group of volunteers selected from individuals who self-nominated through a solicitation by AIHA. The AIHA Academic Special Interest Group and representatives from BGC and ACGIH assisted the team, with several other industrial hygienists providing peer review. All members of the team that updated the document were CIHs.
SHARE YOUR FEEDBACK The AAP invites your feedback on these proposed changes to the ABET IH program criteria. Your feedback is valued and is an important part of the process. The survey will remain open through the end of April. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey.