WORKPLACE: History
Since the late 1940s, the Department of Environmental Health has provided industrial hygiene services to employers and state agencies.
Since 1956, the Field Research and Consultation Group has served the occupational safety and health needs of businesses and labor groups in the state.
In 1963 the Legislature allocated funding to the Department from workers’ compensation funds for "the prevention of industrial and occupational disease among workmen, the promotion and protection of safer working environments and dissemination of the knowledge and information acquired…."
In 1970, Environmental Health became a department in the new School of Public Health and Community Medicine. A preventive medicine residency program began shortly thereafter. Teaching, research, and service were given equal weight in the early days. The Environmental Health Laboratory (successor to the Environmental Research Laboratory) still supports service, basic research, and student training.
In 1977 the Department began receiving federal training funds from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to serve as a regional resource in occupational safety and health. At that time the Department developed a collaborative relationship with the University’s Department of Medicine to run the occupational medicine program, and with the School of Nursing, which administers the occupational health nursing program. Since then, the Department has trained students, conducted research, and provided service in each of these disciplines.
The words "occupational" and "sciences" were formally added to the Department of Environmental Health's name in 2003, acknowledging a work program dating back more than half a century.
Timeline
1947
First industrial hygiene courses offered at UW School of Medicine.
1951
Environmental Research Laboratory officially established at UW School of Medicine.
1963
Washington State Legislature funds the Environmental Research Laboratory to do research, teaching, and service in occupational health.
1970
Department of Environmental Health established in new School of Public Health and Community Medicine.
1977
NIOSH establishes Northwest Center for Occupational Health & Safety at UW.
2003
Name changed to Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences.
Read Sharon Morris and Goldy Kleinman's 1990 history of occupational health research in Washington state (PDF download)
