The American Board of Industrial Hygiene: 60 years of progress

REM Risk Consultants’ Michael Larrañaga recently co-authored a paper in The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene titled “The American Board of Industrial Hygiene: 60 years of progress”.

Sixty years have passed since the inaugural Board meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the incorporation of the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH) in 1960. During that time, changes have been made to the ABIH Board name, board structure, exam, and the base educational and certification requirements, including the addition of an ethics component. In 2019, the ABIH-Board changed the organization’s name to the Board for Global EHS Credentialing (BGC) and the industrial hygiene (IH) credentialing division became known simply by the acronym “ABIH.”

This article presents a brief historical update, discusses how policies have adapted to the evolving IH landscape, and focuses on changes in Board governance, the certification process, and the adoption of an ABIH Code of Ethics. A detailed timeline of the ABIH history can be found here.

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