How to become Occupational Health and Safety Technician in 2024

Occupational Health and Safety Technician Collect data on work environments for analysis by occupational health and safety specialists. Implement and conduct evaluation of programs designed to limit chemical, physical, biological, and ergonomic risks to workers.

Occupational Health and Safety Technician is Also Know as

In different settings, Occupational Health and Safety Technician is titled as

  • Advisory Industrial Hygienist
  • Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH)
  • Construction Safety Consultant
  • Health and Safety Technician
  • Industrial Hygiene Consultant
  • Industrial Hygiene Engineer
  • Industrial Hygienist
  • Safety Research Professional

Education and Training of Occupational Health and Safety Technician

Occupational Health and Safety Technician is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Occupational Health and Safety Technician

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Education Required for Occupational Health and Safety Technician

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Degrees Related to Occupational Health and Safety Technician

Training Required for Occupational Health and Safety Technician

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Occupational Health and Safety Technician in different industries are

What Do Occupational Health and Safety Technician do?

  • Maintain all required environmental records and documentation.
  • Supply, operate, or maintain personal protective equipment.
  • Prepare or calibrate equipment used to collect or analyze samples.
  • Test workplaces for environmental hazards, such as exposure to radiation, chemical or biological hazards, or excessive noise.
  • Prepare or review specifications or orders for the purchase of safety equipment, ensuring that proper features are present and that items conform to health and safety standards.
  • Examine credentials, licenses, or permits to ensure compliance with licensing requirements.
  • Educate the public about health issues or enforce health legislation to prevent disease, to promote health, or to help people understand health protection procedures and regulations.
  • Conduct interviews to obtain information or evidence regarding communicable diseases or violations of health or sanitation regulations.
  • Review records or reports concerning laboratory results, staffing, floor plans, fire inspections, or sanitation to gather information for the development or enforcement of safety activities.
  • Prepare documents to be used in legal proceedings, testifying in such proceedings when necessary.
  • Plan emergency response drills.
  • Maintain logbooks of daily activities, including areas visited or activities performed.
  • Help direct rescue or firefighting operations in the event of a fire or an explosion.
  • Confer with schools, state authorities, or community groups to develop health standards or programs.
  • Collect data regarding potential hazards from new equipment or products linked to green practices.
  • Collect data related to ecological or human health risks at brownfield sites.
  • Examine practices at green building sites to determine whether adherence to green building standards alters risks to workers.
  • Perform tests to identify any potential hazards related to recycled products used at green building sites.
  • Test or balance newly installed HVAC systems to determine whether indoor air quality standards are met.
  • Train workers in safety procedures related to green jobs, such as the use of fall protection devices or maintenance of proper ventilation during wind turbine construction.
  • Verify availability or monitor use of safety equipment, such as hearing protection or respirators.
  • Evaluate situations or make determinations when a worker has refused to work on the grounds that danger or potential harm exists.
  • Recommend corrective measures to be applied based on results of environmental contaminant analyses.
  • Conduct worker studies to determine whether specific instances of disease or illness are job-related.
  • Inspect fire suppression systems or portable fire systems to ensure proper working order.
  • Provide consultation to organizations or agencies on the workplace application of safety principles, practices, or techniques.

Qualities of Good Occupational Health and Safety Technician

  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Occupational Health and Safety Technician

  • Aerosol meters
  • Aerosol photometers
  • Air compressors
  • Air flow calibrators
  • Air quality dataloggers
  • Airflow indicators
  • Anemometers
  • Carbon monoxide sensors
  • Cascade impactors
  • Combustible gas detectors
  • Cyclone samplers
  • Data acquisition equipment
  • Data loggers
  • Diffusive air samplers
  • Digital cameras
  • Digital video cameras
  • Dry-gas meters
  • Dust collectors
  • Electrobalances
  • Electrochemical gas monitors
  • Electronic bubble meters
  • Electronic pump calibrators
  • Electrostatic precipitators
  • Flame ionization detectors FID
  • Flow hoods
  • Gas chromatographs GC
  • Gas detector tubes
  • Gilibrators
  • Grab samplers
  • Half-face respirators
  • Handheld calculators
  • Heat stress monitors
  • Impingers
  • Infrared analyzers
  • Infrared thermometers
  • Inspection lamps
  • Light meters
  • Manometers
  • Mass flow meters
  • Medical measuring tapes
  • Mercury vapor analyzers
  • Microbial samplers
  • Moisture meters
  • Multimeters
  • Octave band analyzers
  • Oxygen monitors
  • Particle counters
  • Particle sensors
  • Particulate monitors
  • Passive dosimeters
  • Passive samplers
  • Personal computers
  • Personal sampling pumps
  • Photodetectors
  • Photoionization detectors PID
  • Portable infrared spectrophotometers
  • Power blowers
  • Protective gloves
  • Radiation detectors
  • Radon monitors
  • Respirator hose masks
  • Rotameters
  • Safety goggles
  • Self-contained breathing apparatus
  • Single gas monitors
  • Sorbent tubes
  • Sound level meters
  • Spectroscopes
  • Spirometers
  • Thermal desorption tubes
  • Thermoanemometers
  • Two way radios
  • Vibration monitors
  • Wet scrubbers
  • X ray fluorescence XRF analyzers

Technology Skills required for Occupational Health and Safety Technician

  • Brady Lockout Pro
  • Database software
  • Email software
  • Graphics software
  • Industrial Scientific iNET
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft SharePoint
  • Microsoft Word
  • Presentation software
  • QuestSuite Professional
  • Remedy Interactive iMitigate
  • SAP software
  • Spreadsheet software
  • Statistical analysis software
  • TapRooT
  • Teleconferencing software
  • Web browser software
  • Word processing software