Despite the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) lab standard requiring a Chemical Hygiene Officer (CHO) in any laboratory working with chemicals, a formal education in the CHO profession has never been standardized. To our knowledge, West Virginia Wesleyan College is the first institution of higher education to offer a CHO major. The CHO major not only provides our students with an avenue for immediate job placement upon graduation above and beyond opportunities available to an entry level chemist, it fills a void in safety training across academia that is currently the focus of much scrutiny. Key elements of the program include a traditional background comparable to a chemistry BS degree with additional chemical hygiene, industrial hygiene, HAZWOPER, and toxicology training. The objective is to produce employable CHO's who have a firm background in chemistry, a solid grasp of relevant regulations and standards, as well as familiarity with legal responsibilities of the profession. A recent agreement between WV Wesleyan and the National Registry of Certified Chemists, the only CHO certifying body recognized by the ACS, now allows graduating CHO students to test for certification by substituting the work experience requirement with experiential learning during their undergraduate studies, making them immediately marketable upon graduation. This presentation will discuss the impetus for development of this original program, implementation and agreements with certifying bodies, course offerings, current student progress, and our vision for this program in the future.

24 years late: Chemical Hygiene Officer major at WV Wesleyan College

248th National Meeting (2014)

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