Occupational Health Society of Australia Inc.

  

Aim

The Occupational Health Society of Australia Inc. is a not-for-profit representative body providing expert advice to Government at all levels and support to OHS professionals. 

Occupational Health Society of Australia Inc.

Occupational Health Society of Australia Inc.

Established in 1968 incorporated in 1978, the Occupational Health Society of Australia Inc. is a non-profit association which provides a forum for the wide range of disciplines engaged in the occupational health profession.

The 8th of August 2023 marks 45 years since the first meeting of the Occupational Health Society in Australia in 1968. The Occupational Health Society was originally suggested to the Director of the then Government Chemical Laboratories in 1967 based on how the Forensic Science Society had brought a range of interested people together in Western Australia to advance forensic science. Geoff Ebell and Geoff Taylor from the Laboratories met with an occupational hygienist recently appointed to the Public Health Department from East Africa, Gerry Coles, and together with Dr Alan Cumpston formed the first executive of the Occupational Health Society with a committee member from the Mines Department, one from the Labour Department and one from private industry.  People from the Trades and Labour Council were invited to the monthly Members meetings as well as every appropriate health and safety professional, occupational medical practitioner, student studying occupational health and safety, international or interstate visitor who was interested in Occupational Health.

The Occupational Health Society has continued to be an organisation in which Members meet to share and to promote to the government and industry excellence in occupational health practices.  This is facilitated by having regular professional development events and meetings to share occupational health knowledge, by providing input into workplace health and safety legislation development and by producing a quarterly Monitor publication on current occupational health developments and issues locally, nationally, and internationally to share this knowledge with Members and the community. The Occupational Health Society of Australia is a not-for-profit representative body providing expert advice to Government at all levels and support to occupational health and safety professionals.

(Source: Geoff Taylor)

The aims of the Society are:

i.         to develop effective occupational health practice;
   
ii. to encourage awareness by individuals, organisations and other bodies, of the role of occupational health;
   
iii. to provide a forum for professional contact between persons interested in, and working in, occupational health;
   
iv. to express an independent, professional viewpoint on all aspects of occupational health considered desirable in the public interest;
   
v. to seek the improvement or an extension of the existing legislation for the promotion of safety and health at work in order to ensure uniform principles are applied in all occupational activities.