Abstract
Besides protecting the health of workers, industrial hygienists can affect the Profitability of a company directly and indirectly and enhance its image as a quality business with responsiveness to and respect and responsibility for human and environmental health. Areas and activities where industrial hygienists can make a significant impact on the business include supporting marketing activities and new product development, minimizing liability through risk analysis and preventative actions, and influencing positively proposed health-related legislation and regulations. Industrial hygiene can contribute to business success by reviewing new acquisitions to assess risk factors and their control, minimizing the risk of compliance fines and penalties, supporting asset sales by defining cost-effective mitigation needs, and improving operating procedures. Additionally, industrial hygiene can aid the business by characterizing and controlling plant emissions, reviewing plant designs, selecting needed equipment to meet health standards, reducing health care costs associated with injuries, and communicating with governments, employees, and the public to meet health related regulations and company policies. When flavored with local examples, this type of analysis can show that the benefits from industrial hygiene input in either traditional (recognizing, assessing, and controlling in-plant hazards) or nontraditional (improving productivity and business effectiveness through application of industrial hygiene techniques) ways will probably exceed the costs. This information can serve as an industrial hygiene management tool to support the industrial hygiene function and obtain appropriate levels of funding, staffing, and other resources.