Welcome to this First Quarter 2017 BCSP
eNewsletter.
No matter which certification or designation you hold with BCSP, or if you are in the process of attaining one, we have included news and information that will help you in your professional safety career.
See the
In This Issue section to the right to navigate to the stories of most interest to you.
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Message from the President of the Board
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 A vibrant profession rests on a foundation composed of a body of knowledge, applied skills, and member involvement. These elements must all fit together like a puzzle, where each piece is completed through stakeholders' contributions.
To improve upon the profession's body of knowledge, BCSP is collaborating with safety, health, and environmental (SH&E) academic programs to connect students to practitioners.
BCSP is expanding the list of Graduate Safety Practitioner (GSP) Qualified Academic Programs (QAP) to bring more college graduates onto the path toward professionalism. The content of QAPs' curricula must show a substantial match to the Associate Safety Professional (ASP) examination blueprint, and graduates may obtain the GSP designation in recognition of that.
Recognizing the importance of current, experienced safety practitioners, the new Safety Management Specialist (SMS) certification fulfills industry and global demand for validating highly competent safety practitioners with varying amounts of formal education. Requiring a minimum of ten years of experience, among other prerequisites, the SMS completes the continuum of safety practitioner certifications.
The SMS examination is now undergoing beta testing
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Education and experience are important elements of safety professionalism. BCSP's comprehensive set of safety certifications are important components of safety practice, ensuring competency at various levels of formal education and experience, with the Certified Safety Professional (CSP) as the Gold Standard in safety certification.
Our
sponsors and partnerships
illustrate certification's importance. I recently had the honor of extending our collaboration with NIOSH, working together to continue advancing professional development opportunities and improve occupational safety and health at workplaces throughout the United States. BCSP also gained a new partner, the Institute of Safety Professionals of Nigeria (ISPON), with which we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will help strengthen professional safety practice internationally.
Certificants' outreach activities and
mentoring
engage safety practitioners directly in the advancement of the profession. BCSP is expanding outreach through a new BCSP Ambassador program to add even greater tools to provide others the opportunity to enhance their careers.
Knowing the great work being done by my fellow Board Members, BCSP, and our certificants, I look forward to the future of our profession and a safer world.
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Certificant's Commitment to People's Safety Leads to NACOSH Appointment
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Cindy Lewis, CSP, ASP was appointed to the position of Public Member on the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH) on January 1, 2017. She will serve in the position for two years, contributing to the committee's purpose to advise the Secretaries of Labor and Health and Human Services on occupational safety and health programs and policies.
Lewis' interest in chemistry and desire to work with people form the foundation of her dedication to safety, but the power of that combination was not always apparent. "
While I was in college working on my chemistry degree I had a professor who believed that unless you were a pre-med, pre-vet, or pre-dental student you would end up working in a lab with a chemistry degree," she explains. "As someone who enjoyed chemistry, but also enjoyed working with people, this didn't provide me with the motivation to continue in my chosen degree." Lewis left her degree unfinished in her senior year.
A few years later, as an administrative temp, Lewis began assisting the safety and health department at a local refinery. "I started as the administrative assistant to the contractor safety supervisor and was promoted to the administrative assistant to the safety, environmental, and health manager," she recalls. "During this time I became friends with an industrial hygienist who had recently graduated. She taught me about how my chemistry background could be a great fit to becoming an industrial hygienist. She along with my supervisor, the head of the SH&E department, encouraged me to return to college, complete my undergrad degree, and apply for graduate school."
Lewis credits her college professor, the industrial hygienist, and her supervisor with providing her the insight to pursue a career in safety. She returned to school with a clear goal
. Lewis now holds a B.S. in Chemistry from MacMurray College, Jacksonville, IL, where she was named the 2012 Distinguished Alumni Career Award winner, and an M.S. in Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences from the University of Illinois - Chicago's School of Public Health, where she was a NIOSH trainee.
As part of her career, Lewis joined the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), in which she served chapter, regional, and national bodies as an officer or committee person, dedicated to providing others who shared her interests with the opportunity to pursue a career in the safety profession.
She was named both the ASSE Gulf Coast Chapter's Safety Professional of the Year (SPY) and ASSE Region III SPY in 2002, and Training and Communication Branch SPY in 2008.
"For me, safety is all about people," says Lewis, who emphasizes engagement. "It's about teaching, coaching, providing resources all in the goal of allowing people to perform their jobs so that they can go home every day to their family and friends."
For those with an interest in the sciences and others' well-being, safety is a rewarding career.
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 BCSP Collaborates to Advance Safety
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BCSP continues to collaborate with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and has established a new
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Institute of Safety Professionals of Nigeria (ISPON).
BCSP and NIOSH recently renewed their partnership to collaborate on the development of safety and health professionals and improve occupational safety and health at workplaces throughout the United States.
 "BCSP is honored to continue our partnership with NIOSH in assisting to advance this profession and protect the public," said BCSP Board President Chris Patton, CSP, ASP.
"NIOSH and BCSP share a common goal of ensuring occupational safety," said NIOSH Director Dr. John Howard. "Accredited certification is valuable to safety practice, as it attests to certification holders' competencies and requires ongoing education to keep workers free from harm."
BCSP and ISPON
signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will better build professional safety practice internationally by providing a path to the CSP.
 "The combination of the internationally accredited CSP with MISPN status provides safety practitioners in Nigeria with certification and association, important pillars of professionalism," says Dr. Treasa Turnbeaugh, CSP, ASP, CET, CEO of BCSP.
"This MOU will give more exposure and recognition to our safety professionals anywhere they go around the world, which expands their opportunities of being global players in occupational health and safety," says Dr. Nnamdi Ilodiuba, FISPN, FNIIS, CPP, PCI, PSP, CSC, CPO,National President of ISPON.
The BCSP-NIOSH Collaborative Agreement is available in further detail on the BCSP Partners webpage, and more information on the BCSP-ISPON MOU is available on the International Safety Certification webpage.
Photo (Top): BCSP Board President Chris Patton, CSP, ASP, left; and NIOSH Director Dr. John Howard, right, renew the BCSP-NIOSH Partnership.
Photo (Bottom): Dr. Nnamdi Ilodiuba, National President of ISPON, signs the BCSP-ISPON MOU at ISPON's 35th Professional Development Conference.
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BCSP Awards Scholarships to Students from ABET-Accredited Programs
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In recognition of high-quality SH&E academic programs, BCSP has added students from ABET-accredited
GSP QAPs to those it offers scholarships, an initiative which has supported the education of eighteen exceptional safety students.
Students who have received the BCSP, ABET-accredited QAP scholarships for the 2016-2017 academic year include:
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Taylor Orr
Brady Lee Ritzert
University of Central Missouri
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Shayla Mack
Montana Tech
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John Freshour III
Fairmont State University
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Alexander Hopewell
Ashlie Paris
Murray State University
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Taylor Seyfried
University of Findlay
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Jack Kerr
University of Oklahoma
Health Sciences Center
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Jessica Bramlet
Efrain Gonzalez
University of Houston-Clearlake
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Alexandra Thompson
Oklahoma State University
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Nora Fredstrom
Illinois State University
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Richard Barnard
Southeastern Louisiana University
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Dana Piper
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
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Wan Wei Zhou
Tulane University
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Erin Wroblewski
Marshall University
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Isabella Muffoletto
Utah State University
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Nicolas Rebert
Millersville University
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 Scholarship recipient Alex Hopewell, student at Murray State University, explains the value he places in the safety profession as a SH&E student:
"I discovered something that allowed me to ensure that working men and women could return home the same way they went in. Furthermore, as I have interned throughout multiple industries I have come to realize that the most important aspect of safety is 'people'. People can make or break safety culture in a facility. Thus, why I entered the safety program...to help those blue collar workers much like my family. Simply, to help people."
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BCSP Provides Substantial Support to the Profession
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BCSP provided more than $1,000,000 for career-building incentives to SH&E students, ABET accredited Qualified Academic Programs and safety professionals in 2016.
Scholarships funded by BCSP provided a total $120,000 to safety students. These included $90,000 awarded to students in ABET-accredited
GSP QAPs and $30,000 split evenly between scholarship funds operated by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), the American Industrial Hygiene Foundation (AIHF), and the American Society of Safety Engineers Foundation (ASSEF). It also included $38,000 in support of the ASSE Future Safety Leaders Conference and support of the annual renewal fees to the ABET-accredited Qualified Academic Programs.
Military service members, veterans, government employees, graduates, and faculty who pursued certification with BCSP saved approximately $533,000 through use of
application and/or examination fee waivers offered to them in appreciation for their service. Those who serve or have served in the military may also have their examination fees reimbursed through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Current certificants who make use of the
BCSP Recertification Quiz Program also benefited from that program's quizzes being offered at no cost, which saved certificants approximately $340,000.
These are a few examples of how BCSP is supporting career paths to safety professionalism
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Safety Management Specialist (SMS) Beta Exam Underway
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 The SMS1 Beta exam was released on March 15, and applications for it will be accepted through April 12, 2017. The exam will undergo beta testing until May 12, 2017, during which time those whose applications were accepted must sit for examination.
The
SMS certification is for safety practitioners with the skills, knowledge, and experience required to manage a business's safe operation. It fulfills industry and global demand for validating highly competent safety practitioners with varying amounts of formal education and experience. SMS certifications complete the continuum of those impacting the safety culture of their organizations.
The SMS is intended for dedicated safety practitioners with ten (10) years of experience in occupational safety or health, with or without a degree. Applicants must work part-time or full-time in occupational safety or health with a minimum 35% of job tasks related to the management of safety related programs, processes, procedures, and/or personnel. Candidates must pass the SMS1 examination to achieve the SMS certification.
As part of the SMS1 Beta, the $160 application fee will be waived, and the examination fee will be reduced from $350 to $175. Those who sit for and pass the SMS1 Beta examination will be among the first to achieve this new certification when it is released later this year.
Visit BCSP's Beta Examinations webpage for complete details on the SMS1 Beta examination and to apply.
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International Safety Certification
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It's been an exciting and productive year so far for BCSP around the world.
The BCSP-ISPON Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) went into effect at the beginning of 2017. To raise awareness about opportunities for ISPON Members pursuing the CSP, BCSP participated in ASSE Nigeria Chapter's 4th annual PDC in Lagos, Nigeria from March 23-25.
BCSP travelled to Hyderabad, India from February 16-18 to speak and exhibit at the ASSE India Chapters' annual PDC, reaching hundreds of participants from all over the country. While there, BCSP staff also met with representatives from the Central Labor Institute (CLI), Mumbai, and leadership of the State Board of Technical Education and Training in Telangana State to encourage recipients of the Diploma in Industrial Safety from the CLI or Regional Labor Institutes to take advantage of the ASP waiver as outlined in the BCSP MOU with the Government of India in their pursuit of the CSP.
Engagement with the State Administration of Work Safety in China continues as well, focused on advancing certification among the nearly 1.3 million eligible safety engineers across the country. This follows BCSP's first-ever engagement in China in 2016, where BCSP's CEO, Dr. Treasa Turnbeaugh, CSP, ASP, CET, spoke at the 8th China International Occupational Safety & Health Exhibition from September 27-29 in Beijing.
"Having the opportunity to discuss safety, health, and environmental practice with professionals from many different countries and culture has been illuminating and valuable," says Erica Poff, BCSP's Government Affairs and Outreach Manager, who has organized much of the international outreach. "There are many ways in which we can work together to create a safer world, and we are beginning to apply solutions to meet that goal."
In the future, BCSP has plans to participate in three major international safety events in Singapore this September: The signing of the Singapore Accords with the International Network of Safety & Health Practitioner Organisations (INSHPO); participation in the XXI World Congress on Safety and Health at Work 2017, sponsored by the International Labour Organization; and outreach with the Asia Pacific Occupational Safety and Health Organisation (APOSHO)
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BCSP Board Member Rick Pollock, CSP, ASP addresses the ASSE Nigeria Chapter
Professional Development Conference. |
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2016 BCSP Mentor Honor Roll Released
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BCSP mentors encourage their colleagues to pursue safety certification and volunteer their time to provide support to new applicants and candidates. We appreciate their joining us in enhancing careers and advancing the safety profession through certification.
Our 2016 mentors are recognized in the
2016 BCSP Mentor Honor Roll. Those who mentored multiple individuals will be receiving complimentary BCSP merchandise soon.
If you are pursuing certification and have the support of another, take a moment to recognize them by visiting the
Mentoring webpage and completing the Professional Advancement Mentor Form.
If you are a BCSP certificant and actively encourage others to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in safety, consider the BCSP Mentor Program. When a mentee's application for certification is accepted, they can complete the mentor form to recognize you as an advocate of professional safety practice.
Thank you, mentors, for your dedication to safety
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BCSP Supports National Safety Stand-Down, Partners with OSHA on Safe + Sound Week
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The National Safety Stand-Down is set for May 8-12, 2017. Falls are the primary cause of construction worker fatalities in the US, and safety practitioners can tailor their prevention efforts during the Stand-Down to highlight the issue.
 The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has also organized Safe + Sound Week, set for June 12-18, 2017. Safe + Sound week is for businesses that ensure, or would like to ensure, workplace safety through the guidelines developed in OSHA's updated
Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs.
BCSP has joined the campaign and invites our partners to participate. Participation includes taking action that shows management leadership in safety, encourages employee participation, and using a systematic approach to finding and fixing workplace hazards.
More information on the campaign and participation in Safe + Sound Week, can be found on the
Safe + Sound website.
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BCSP
Board of Directors
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C. Christopher Patton, CSP, ASP
(President)
Linda F. Martin, CSP, ASP, OHST, CHST, STSC, CET
(Vice President)
Patricia A. Cruse, CSP, CET
(Treasurer)
Treasa M. Turnbeaugh, PhD, CSP, ASP, CET, CAE, IOM
(Secretary and CEO)
John E. Hodges, CSP, OHST
(Past President)
V. Raymond Ferrara, CFP
Joshua J. Franklin, CSP, STS, CET
Jim S. Kreinbrink, CSP
Cheryl L. Marcham, PhD, CSP
Richard A. Pollock, CSP
Mario A. Varela, CSP
Cece M. Weldon, CSP, CHST, STSC
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Subscribe to Unique BCSP eNewsletters
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BCSP offers unique eNewsletters: The Partners eNewsletter, designed for sponsors, business persons using our certifications, collaborating agencies; and the Collegiate eNewsletter, for university faculty and students.
Click to subscribe to unique BCSP eNewsletters.
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Current Changes Index |
Over the course of the year, a range of policy changes, procedure updates and other modifications occur. We want to make everyone aware of these changes on a regular basis, as well as keep an archive of the announcements.
Visit the Current Changes Index page on our website to find the most up-to-date policy and procedure information.
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CMS Tutorials
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If you will be using the BCSP Certification Management System (CMS) for the first time, you may want to view our CMS video tutorials.
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Your Source for
Safety Expertise
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A Who's Who listing over 1,000 safety professionals, eSafetySource helps individuals and companies find certificants that can assist them with their particular safety needs.
Enroll in or search eSafetySource.
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Mentor Program
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The BCSP Mentor Program recognizes certificates who assist the career development of other safety practitioners.
Credential holders who are interested in mentoring an applicant, should visit the BCSP Mentoring webpage.
Those currently mentoring are honored in the Mentoring Honor Roll.
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BCSP's Toolkit for Advancing the Safety Profession
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Banner displays are a great way to promote BCSP certifications and earn Recertification credit. A display is available to any certificate holder for use at chapter meetings, regional or local conferences, career fairs, and other safety-related seminars, meetings, and presentations. BCSP ships to and from any U.S. venue and provides literature at no cost.
If you would like to reserve a display, fill out a Banner Display Request. Displays are first come, first serve, and must be returned.
Presentations on safety certification can also be done for Recertification points, and BCSP has many resources that can be used for presentations, including pre-made PowerPoints, on our Articles and Presentations webpage.
Item writing illustrates your safety knowledge, earning you Recertification points as well. Find out more on our Item Writing webpage.
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Unauthorized Use of Our Credentials
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BCSP pursues cases of individuals claiming to hold our credentials without permission. We pursue those cases in which there is clear evidence of the unauthorized use and the individual has a clear responsibility, control, or knowledge of the use. Evidence may be a business card, resume, letter, website, or other publication. If there is no clear evidence, BCSP cannot act on the case.
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BCSP 2016 Certificants
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Congratulations to everyone who achieved certification last year!
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Share News of Your Achievement
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Career Center
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The BCSP Career Center connects job seekers with prospective employers in the safety, health and environmental industry. Results are just a click away!
The Career Center allows job seekers who hold any of our credentials to post an anonymous resume in our resume bank for free.
For companies looking to hire individuals who hold our credentials this is your direct route to qualified individuals.
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