The professional field of industrial hygiene/occupational hygiene has its roots in the profession of public health, which means the preservation of health and prevention of disease among people engaged in an occupation. The modern definition of industrial hygiene also includes protection of the health of persons living in the community or around a place of work from hazards that may arise from that place of work and affect overall health. This chapter focuses on various factors that are involved in relating exposure to health hazards to human health and well‐being and the rationale upon which the practice of industrial hygiene/occupational hygiene is based. Significant progress has been made during the past century in characterizing and controlling exposure to occupational health hazards. Comprehensive industrial hygiene programs are being used to effectively control exposures to work hazards in most developed countries, but this is less so in emerging economies. Today, the rationale for industrial hygiene practice continues to evolve to help address such important topics as how the occupational environment affects and relates to the physiological, psychological, and behavioral aspects of health and well‐being.

Occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS) are a powerful risk management tool. They provide IH and EHS professionals with a robust and structured management approach. OHS management systems have significant roots in the quality management systems developed in United Sates in the early 20 th century. ISO and other NGO standards have been developed with an eye toward the value of conformity assessment to ensure a common application of specific objectives identified in applicable standards. The pyramid model has been used as a powerful tool to help OHS professionals and their organizations to develop and implement OHS management systems. Besides this, numerous implementation steps for OHS management systems have been discussed.

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