According to the National Safety Council, in 2023, the United States experienced 4.07 million workplace injuries requiring medical care, including falls, exposure to harmful substances, and injurious contact with work equipment. Safety experts have found that the majority of these injuries could have been avoided; in fact, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) asserts that more than 99 percent of all workplace injuries are preventable. Certified safety professionals use their training and expertise to ensure that these types of avoidable accidents happen less often, making for safer work environments for all.
Many master’s degrees in occupational health and safety provide only a limited overview of industrial hygiene, making it beneficial to earn a Master of Science in Public Health that is specific to industrial hygiene. These degrees focus on health and safety from a scientific perspective in addition to helping students prepare for a Certified Safety Professional (CSP) credential.
What Is a Certified Safety Professional Credential?
The Board of Certified Safety Professionals administers the CSP credential, which establishes that someone is a professional in the field of industrial hygiene. CSP holders are responsible for risk assessment in the workplace, establishing controls for potential hazards, maintaining and evaluating incident records, and preparing response plans in the event of an emergency, among other responsibilities.
Unlike a certificate program, which typically has no ongoing requirements after completion, a credential requires recertification throughout the course of an individual’s career, ensuring that the individual stays up to date on current safety knowledge.
Why the Certified Safety Professional Credential Is Important
The CSP credential helps to keep industrial hygiene standards, which protect health and safety in the workplace. Obtaining the credential shows future employers that the safety practitioner has a thorough, advanced understanding of safety management and accident prevention, knowledge that can set them apart from candidates without such a credential.
How to Earn a Certified Safety Professional Credential
An individual can apply for the CSP credential at any time, but they must follow the application process. The process includes an exam, a set fee and other eligibility requirements.
Required Skills, Background, and Fees
Before candidates can take the exam to earn this credential, they must first meet certain eligibility requirements. At a minimum, candidates must have a bachelor’s degree and four years of safety experience, with at least 50 percent focused on preventive safety at a professional level. Candidates also need to have already earned a Board of Certified Safety Professionals-qualified credential, which may include several options.
Once a candidate has met these requirements, they can apply for the certification. Candidates whom the board deems eligible will be given one year to take and pass the certification exam. It costs $160 to apply and $350 to take the exam.
Renewal Requirements
CSP holders must maintain their credentials. They must pay an annual fee that the board determines, as well as earn recertification points every five years.
Careers for Certified Safety Professionals
The Certified Safety Professional credential can open the door to many professions. It helps candidates stand out and demonstrate their expertise, putting them ahead of candidates without the credential.
Occupational Health and Safety Technician
Occupational health and safety technicians prepare, implement, and optimize programs designed to mitigate risk in the workplace. They collect data on work environments, investigate incidents to find a cause, and create a plan to prevent future incidents, ensure that workers are using equipment properly, and develop and teach emergency procedures to workers.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (the source of all salary and job data in this article unless otherwise indicated), these professionals had a median annual salary of $77,580 as of May 2023. The number of positions for these technicians is projected to grow by 14 percent between 2023 and 2033, far outpacing the national average.
Compliance Officer
Every industry has certain laws and standards that regulate them, with many established to protect workers and create a safe environment. Compliance officers have a deep understanding of the rules and regulations that guide their industry. They use this expertise to ensure that organizations and the individuals within them comply with these rules. They identify compliance risks; offer recommendations on optimizing compliance; and develop and implement policies, procedures, and training programs regarding compliance.
The median annual salary for compliance officers was about $75,670 as of May 2023. The number of positions for this career is projected to grow by 5 percent between 2023 and 2033, about as fast as the national average.
Health and Safety Engineer
Health and safety engineers evaluate workplaces, the products produced in these workplaces, and the systems enacted in these workplaces to increase the effectiveness of industrial hygiene. They find potential risks and make recommendations to mitigate them. They also investigate industrial accidents and injuries to find their causes and determine whether these incidents were avoidable. Additionally, they measure the effectiveness of corrective measures taken after any violations discovered during a health inspection.
The median annual salary for a health and safety engineer is about $103,690 as of 2023. Similar to compliance officers, health and safety engineers are projected to have a 5 percent growth rate between 2023 and 2033.
Create Safer Workplaces
Certified safety professionals are vital in the movement to make workplaces safer for everyone. While millions are injured each year in avoidable accidents, the National Safety Council notably found that the number of preventable work-related deaths is trending downward, with a 3 percent decrease between 2022 and 2023. This trend is largely due to safety professionals, such as those with a CSP credential.
The Online Master of Science in Public Health in Industrial Hygiene offered by Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine at Tulane University puts students a step closer to earning this credential. Students not only learn crucial skills in risk assessment, communication, and data interpretation and analytics but also come away from this flexible degree program with one year of credit toward the experience requirement for the Certified Industrial Hygienist exam.
The Certified Industrial Hygienist exam is one of the Board of Certified Safety Professionals-qualified credentials that candidates for the Certified Safety Professional credential need before they can apply. Graduates of this program emerge as leading public health experts, ready to put their knowledge and skills into action to make workplaces safer for everyone.
Learn how you can shape the future of industrial hygiene with Tulane.
Recommended Readings
Health and Safety Inspector Job Description
How Product Safety Engineers Promote Workplace Safety
5 High-Paying Industrial Hygiene Jobs
Sources:
Board of Certified Safety Professionals, Certified Safety Professional (CSP)
Board of Certified Safety Professionals, Policies & Forms
National Safety Council, Work Overview: Work Safety Introduction
OSHA Outreach Courses, Workplace Injury Statistics You Should Know in 2025
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Compliance Officers
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Health and Safety Engineers
U.S. Bureau of Labor, Occupational Health and Safety Specialists and Technicians