Why H&S Professionals Are Key to the Future of Occupational Hygiene

The Silent Crisis of Occupational Ill Health

Occupational exposure, or in other words, ‘work-related exposure to harmful agents which damage health’, remains a major challenge in the UK. Despite being insidious and often lethal in its nature, it remains something of a “Cinderella” topic in public consciousness.

The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) publishes detailed and regularly updated statistics on workplace risks. The data is high quality and offers a sobering glimpse into the ongoing challenges of the occupational environment, even if it rarely makes a dent in mainstream media coverage. For example, between April 2024 and March 2025, 124 worker fatalities were recorded in the UK, all related to workplace incidents. This number, although tragic, represents a steady long term decrease in workplace accident deaths thanks to higher standards, better procedures and ultimately better outcomes in the world of safety risk management.

But the picture shifts significantly when it comes to exposure-related deaths and illness. According to HSE data , approximately 1.7 million workers were suffering some form of work related ill health, whether recently diagnosed or as a result of longstanding disease. Many of these are known as long-latency conditions tied to cumulative exposure to harmful agents — from dust and fumes to solvents and biological hazards. For example, mesothelioma deaths were recorded at 2,218 for the same period (2023), with a similar number attributed to other asbestos-related lung cancers. Although that trend may be levelling off or even now decreasing due to legacy exposure controls, asbestos still remains present in thousands of active-use buildings such as schools, warehouses and other properties.

Unfortunately, the overall burden of work-related lung disease remains high: around 12,000 deaths per year  are still linked to exposure to asbestos, silica dust, isocyanates, solvents, welding fumes, hardwoods, and more. Add to this the 12,000 annual cases of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL)  and the persistent toll of work-related stress and musculoskeletal disorders, and it becomes clear that occupational ill health is still very much present in today’s working environments.

Regulatory Compliance & Competence

So, what brought about these outcomes? The UK has long been recognised as one of the most robustly regulated countries in the world. Since the 1974 Health & Safety at Work Act (HaSAWA), we’ve seen major legislation such as the COSHH regulations and the EU-derived “Six Pack” Regulations of the 1990s (and later Directives) introduce clear requirements for tackling a diverse range of workplace health risks. And yet, the statistics continue to speak for themselves.

For many, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that regulations alone are not enough. They require competent, trained individuals acting under management guidance to not only comprehend the requirements, but to competently apply them in a sustainable and successful way. And yet in many recorded examples levels of workplace compliance have been observed as insufficient, misunderstood, or simply misapplied. Worse, it can sometimes be reduced to a paper exercise, particularly in environments that escape the attention of inspectors or operate with mobile, peripatetic workforces (e.g. industrial chemical tank cleaners or mobile heavy plant repair teams) where an obsolete Safety Data Sheet is all that represents a risk assessment. Meanwhile, the complexity of exposure risk, and the need for qualified personnel to measure and manage it, is often overlooked.

Thankfully, enforcement has evolved. Today’s workplace environments offer less tolerance for poor compliance or low competence. Simply put, regulators, senior management executives, shareholders and worker representatives simply won’t tolerate non-compliance. Legal, financial, and reputational consequences now accompany failure to protect workers’ health. For those responsible for exposure monitoring, control systems, compliance audits, and strategic recommendations, competence is no longer optional, but critical.

The Occupational Hygienist Shortage

Herein lies the challenge. Whilst we’ve seen real progress in health and safety culture, there remains a significant shortfall in trained occupational hygienists. In 2024 an article appeared in the BOHS (British Occupational Hygiene Society) Exposure magazine (Issue 3; 2024, pp 13-14) entitled “The Looming Crisis; the skill shortage in Occupational Hygiene”.

The numbers speak volumes. As of the 2023 BOHS membership data, the UK had:

• 207 Licentiate Members (typically qualified to BOHS Certificate CertOH level).
• 101 Chartered Members (typically qualified to BOHS DipOH Diploma level).
• 39 Fellows

That’s just 347 individuals nationwide formally qualified to practice for the UK as a whole. So, how do we address the challenge of meeting the UK’s commercial, industrial and occupational needs?

The Partner-Contact Model

In multinational industries where hygiene professionals are in high demand and short supply, one model has gained particular traction: the Partner-Contact approach.

Used by multinational operators in remote locations (e.g. offshore oil rigs, desert installations, remote processing sites) this model blends centralised occupational hygiene expertise with trained, site-based personnel who act as on-the-ground partners/contacts. These individuals may be safety officers, nurses, or engineers — but they receive formal training in occupational hygiene practices to supplement the capacity of full-time OH/IH professionals.

In many cases, this involves attending BOHS-accredited training courses delivered by approved providers, followed by hands-on mentoring and practical skills development under the guidance of qualified occupational hygienists. Trainees may take on tasks such as equipment calibration, exposure monitoring, COSHH assessments, and even sample preparation, all carried out under close supervision to ensure quality and compliance.

The model works because it doesn’t compromise on quality. The contact personnel operate under the oversight of a fully qualified hygienist, ensuring assurance and compliance. Crucially, many of these contacts go on to pursue full occupational hygiene accreditation themselves, helping to grow the professional support for their businesses.

Training Pathways for H&S Professionals

This scalable, partner-led model isn’t just for the oil and gas sector. It has clear relevance to all the UK’s industrial and commercial landscape, where site-based safety professionals are often expected to manage problematic exposure risks without formal hygiene training.

By empowering local health and safety “leaders” to begin BOHS training, whether through a single training module or as part of a broader CPD pathway, organisations have the opportunity to build in-house competence, reduce reliance on external consultants, improve response times and ultimately provide better protection for their workforce.

For professionals already working in health and safety roles, this training pathway also offers a meaningful and accredited route into a high-demand field. This enables expansion of technical skillsets and more proactive roles in identifying and managing occupational exposure risks.

Build Internal Capacity with BOHS Accredited Support

At Envirochem, we’re proud to be a BOHS-approved training provider, delivering specialist courses to professionals across a wide range of industries. Whether you’re looking to upskill your internal team, embed a Partner-Contact model, or begin your journey towards occupational hygiene accreditation, we can help.

Explore our occupational hygiene training courses , or get in touch  to discuss how training can support your team’s health and compliance goals.

Dr Alexander Bianchi (PhD, DipOH, CFFOH, FRSPH, CChem, MRSC) was the Occupational Health Centre of Excellence Manager (Europe, Africa and Middle East) for Exxon Mobil from 2003- 2016 and has worked full-time in OH since 1987. He is a Past President of the BOHS. He has been assigned as Senior Scientific Advisor (OH Sciences) with Envirochem since May 2022.