Wollongong the sole Australian university to run hazardous substances pilot course

Oct 06, 2006

The University of Wollongong (UOW) has been chosen as the only university in Australia to present a pilot course into hazardous substances management – the first time this specialist training course has been offered outside the United Kingdom.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wollongong, Professor Gerard Sutton, will officially open the occupational hygiene training course at the Novotel Northbeach on Monday 9 October. The Group Director Industrial Hygiene for BP, Mr Roger Alesbury, based in London, will visit Australia especially for the course launch.

In December 2005, BP approached the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) and the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists (AIOH) regarding the possibility of holding one or more of the BOHS training modules in occupational hygiene in Australia.

Associate Professor Brian Davies of UOW’s School of Health Sciences said that BP undertook to underwrite such a venture as they wished to develop their personnel in the area of occupational hygiene which is the recognition, evaluation and control of those contaminants and processes hazardous to workers in the industrial environment.

In June this year, the School of Health Sciences at UOW was selected from other universities in Australia providing post graduate occupational hygiene training, to present a pilot course in Wollongong based on the BOHS training module for hazardous substances measurement.

Professor Davies said that negotiations were now under way with BP and other major organisations to establish UOW as a centre of excellence in this area of education.

He said that UOW was attractive to such organisations due to its close links with industry and the skill base of its academic staff. The first pilot course has already attracted students from Australia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and the USA.

When: Monday 9 October at 8.30am

Where: Novotel Northbeach (2-14 Cliff Rd, North Wollongong) in Pacific Rooms 2 & 3

Further information: Associate Professor Brian Davies, School of Health Sciences, on mobile 0407 287 406

For more information, contact:

media@uow.edu.au
University of Wollongong
Ph: (02) 4221 5942; fax (02) 4221 3128