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Occupational Health: The Scope of the problem
By the numbers, there are far too many preventable workplace accidents. Nearly 6000 people die of workplace injuries in the US every year, and tens of thousands of others develop occupational illnesses that may eventually kill them. More than 4 million workers are injured each year, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics figures. The human tragedies behind the numbers stir the passions of many industrial hygienists. Recent coverage of 9/11 focused on lingering illnesses of rescue workers. The Seattle Post Intelligencer did a major investigative series on asbestos illnesses in the mining town of Libby, Montana. The New York Times ran an excellent series, "When Workers Die"
Here are some sources of information about workplace health and safety. At the University of Washington, the master’s program in Industrial Hygiene has been reorganized into a degree called the Master of Science in Occupational and Environmental Exposure Sciences to better represent the current content and professional practice of this discipline.