Basic Requirements
The education must be accredited by an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education(external link) at the time the degree was obtained. Applicants must meet one of the following requirements:
- A bachelor's or graduate/higher level degree in industrial hygiene, occupational health sciences, occupational and environmental health, toxicology, safety sciences, or related science; or
- A bachelor's degree in a branch of engineering, physical science, or life science that included 12 semester hours in chemistry, including organic chemistry, and 18 additional semester hours of courses in any combination of chemistry, physics, engineering, health physics, environmental health, biostatistics, biology, physiology, toxicology, epidemiology, or industrial hygiene; or
- Certification from the Board for Global EHS Credentialing (formerly American Board of Industrial Hygiene(external link) (ABIH)).
Courses in the history or teaching of chemistry are not acceptable.
Evaluation of Education
All science or engineering courses offered in fulfillment of the above requirements must be acceptable for credit toward the completion of a standard 4-year professional curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in science or engineering at an accredited college or university. For engineering degrees to be acceptable, the curriculum must be in a school of engineering with at least one curriculum accredited by the ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) as a professional engineering curriculum.
Evaluation of Experience
Qualifying experience involves the recognition, evaluation, corrective actions, and elimination of environmental conditions in the workplace that causes sickness, impaired health, or illness. This experience must demonstrate a professional knowledge of the theory and application of the principles of industrial hygiene and closely related sciences such as physics and engineering controls.
Such work must have involved experience in all of the following areas: the acquisition of quantitative and qualitative data, and the measurement of exposures for a variety of chemical, physical, and biological stresses; the analysis of the data acquired and the prediction of probable effects of exposures on the health and well-being of workers; and the selection and recommendation of appropriate controls, including management, medical, engineering, education or training, and personal protective equipment.
GS-11:
In addition to the Basic Requirements for this position, your resume must also demonstrate at least one year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the (GS-09) grade level or pay band in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector. Specialized experience must demonstrate the following:
- Performing inspections in a full range of industries in a given geographical area such as Visiting work centers, conducting walk-throughs to identify potential health hazards, and making analysis for presence of toxic materials.
- Conducting a background review of the industry and of the characteristics of the work processes, reviews applicable standards and requirements contained in compliance manuals.
- Holding outbriefs to inform management representatives of alleged violations found, explaining applicable standards, and recommendations for abatement.
- Responding to telephone and email inquiries from employers concerning occupational health matters.
- Writing detailed reports of findings and documenting/tracking surveys and exposure monitoring schedules in Industrial Hygiene or related databases.
GS-12:
In addition to the Basic Requirements for this position, your resume must also demonstrate at least one year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the (GS-11) grade level or pay band in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector. Specialized experience must demonstrate the following:
- Conducting inspections and applying industrial hygiene concepts, principles and practices, applicable to planning and carrying out all industrial hygiene programs for activities concerned with a wide variety of industrial sites and applying applicable regulations to identified deficiencies.
- Recognizing and evaluating occupational health hazards, including those for which the nature and extent of hazard is not completely understood.
- Devising a variety of control measures, including ventilation, shielding, material substitution, change in work procedures, isolation, education, personal protective devices.
- Evaluating proposed new work processes and/or materials and investigate health problems to determine probable cause and recommend measures to minimize health hazards.
- Writing detailed reports of findings and documenting/tracking surveys and exposure monitoring schedules in Industrial Hygiene or related databases.
- Experience using industrial hygiene sampling techniques and instrumentation.
Additional qualification information can be found from the following Office of Personnel Management web site: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0600/industrial-hygiene-series-0690/.
Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., professional, philanthropic, religious, spiritual, community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment.