What are the AIHA Registry Programs?
Our first registry program was established in 1986 within the American Industrial Hygiene Association’s Laboratory Quality Assurance Programs to recognize competency of fiber-counting analysts. In 2009, the AIHA Registry Programs LLC was formed to separate credentialing from AIHA’s membership and education activities to better ensure impartiality. AIHA Registry Programs promote the recognition of individuals who have demonstrated competency in a specialized area of industrial/occupational hygiene practice. AIHA Registry Programs encourage individuals to keep their skills and knowledge current by demonstrating competency through recurring assessment.
The Registry
An AIHA Registry is a listing of individuals who continually demonstrate their competency in a specialty area within the practice of industrial or occupational hygiene, environmental health, or safety. Through the application and competency assessment process, AIHA registry programs verify an individual's knowledge and abilities and identify a level of quality performance among professionals, technicians, and operators in a specialized area of practice. AIHA Registry Programs meet the needs of employers, regulators, professionals, and the public to find individuals with certain specialized knowledge and skills to identify and properly control or remove potential health hazards to workers.
The Need
AIHA Registry Programs provide recognition for individuals who have developed skills and expertise in a single or limited number of the industrial/occupational hygiene profession’s core competencies. These registries fill a credential gap for specialized professionals, technicians, and operators for which a broad certification is not currently applicable. AIHA Registry Programs help to supplement and enhance the occupational hygiene profession and expand the opportunities for practitioners to develop and demonstrate competency in a specialty area of practice.
The Registrants
An AIHA Registration tells employers, regulators, professionals, and the public that you possess the relevant experience, and have demonstrated and tested competence in a specialized area of practice covered by the Registry. Your experience may be focused in a particular area of practice and you are looking to be recognized for achieving a high level of competency in that area. AIHA Registration is one way to demonstrate proof of your experience and your competence.
The Experts
The Subject Matter Expert (SME) teams for each registry program serve a critically important role to the AIHA Registry Programs as the technical guidance and support for our programs. The SMEs are professionals who have the technical knowledge and practical experience to make decisions on registry eligibility, on the revisions and updates to the registry programs bodies of knowledge (BoK), and to maintain the programs’ competency assessments. In each program, SMEs have authored a BoK which stands as the technical guideline for the individual program’s registrants. The SME team enables AIHA Registry Programs to operate in a scientifically sound manner and ensures that the necessary technical resources are available to the Registry Programs’ staff, candidates, and registrants.
The Assessment
Each Registry Program includes a competency assessment to validate the skills and knowledge of the candidate. The competency assessment may be a written exam and/or a hands-on demonstration of skill.
AIHA Registry Programs are not intended to compete with or replace professional certification programs such as the Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH), the Certified Safety Professional (CSP) or other accredited certifications in industrial/occupational hygiene, environmental health or safety. Certification programs recognize individuals who have demonstrated a minimum level of knowledge and skills in the multiple areas of practice. Each AIHA Registry Program focuses on a single, specialized area of practice.