Answer:
Explanation:
ABSTRACT. Without a massive survey of U.S. employers, it is impossible to estimate or describe the full spectrum of those who provide occupational safety and health (OSH) services to the U.S. workforce. However, it was possible to assemble a description of the four traditional or core OSH professions (occupational safety, industrial hygiene, occupational medicine, and occupational health nursing) as well as three other disciplines likely to play a substantial role in the workplace of the future: employee assistance professionals, ergonomists, and occupational health psychologists.
Although each of the four traditional OSH professions emphasizes different aspects of OSH, members of all four professions share the common goal of identifying hazardous conditions, materials, and practices in the workplace and assisting employers and workers in eliminating or reducing the attendant risks. Occupational safety professionals, although concerned about all workplace hazards, have traditionally emphasized the prevention of traumatic injuries and workplace fatalities. Similarly, industrial hygienists, although they do not ignore injuries, have been a source of special expertise on the identification and control of hazards associated with acute or chronic exposure to chemical, biological, and physical agents. Occupational health nurses and occupational medicine physicians are distinguished by providing clinical care and programs aimed at health promotion and protection and disease prevention. These services include not only diagnosis and treatment of work related illness and injury, but also pre-placement, periodic, and return-to-work examinations, impairment evaluations, independent medical examinations, drug testing, disability and case management, counseling