Career: Occupational Health and Safety Specialists
As an occupational health and safety specialist, your job will be to make sure that working conditions are as safe as possible. You may inspect and enforce safety standards on assembly lines or protect workers against biohazardous waste in hospitals. You may inspect safety standards at nuclear power plants or within public schools.
The job may also require studying, redesigning, and updating working environments. And if an accident occurs, occupational health and safety specialists help investigate possible causes and recommend corrective action.
Occupational health and safety specialists promote better health and safety in work environments and prevent harm to workers and the general public. They also enforce air quality and environmental regulations.
Did You Know?
- Occupational health and safety specialists are known by many names, such as occupational health and safety inspectors, industrial hygienists, environmental protection officers, and ergonomists.
Are You Ready To...?
- Identify dangers
- Enforce regulations
- Discuss problems and possible solutions with violators
- Work in a variety of environments, often away from an office
- Work long and sometimes irregular hours
It Helps to Be...
Responsible, detail-oriented, conscientious, and a good communicator. The difference between good and bad communication can sometimes lead to disaster. You will be responsible not only for enforcing safety, but for making sure that people understand and follow the law.
Make High School Count
- Take plenty of math and science courses, including chemistry, biology, physics, and health science.
- Build communication skills in English, drama, and speech classes.
- Volunteer to work with a health or safety program in your high school.
Did You Know?
- In addition to reducing injury, illness, and death, workplace safety saves money. According to OSHA, injuries cost U.S. businesses $125 billion a year.
Outlook
Government economists expect jobs for occupational health and safety specialists to grow as fast as the average for all careers through 2016.
More workers will be needed due to technological advances, new threats, and changing laws. Job security will likely be strongest in government agencies, which employ about two out of five specialists.
Compensation
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that occupational safety and health specialists earned an average salary of $63,030 in 2008.
