1.2 Eligibility, Application Windows, Fees, and Certification Maintenance

Eligibility, Application Windows, Fees, and Certification Maintenance

The CIH is an eligibility-gated credential: BGC approves you to sit before you may schedule, and the approval is based on documentary evidence of education, coursework, and practice. This section states the current requirements precisely, because the most common reason a well-prepared candidate does not test in a given window is a paperwork deadline, not a knowledge gap.

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1. The Degree Requirement — Broader Than Most Candidates Think

BGC does not require an industrial hygiene degree, and does not require any specific named major.

The Board will consider, and may accept, any bachelor's degree from an acceptable college or university, provided the degree is based on appropriate coursework and represents at least 60 semester hours of creditable subjects, with at least 15 of those hours at the upper level (junior, senior, or graduate).

"Creditable subjects" means undergraduate or graduate coursework in science, mathematics, engineering, and science-based technology — the STEM requirement. A biology, chemistry, physics, or engineering degree normally satisfies it automatically; a business or liberal arts degree normally does not, but can be supplemented.

Degrees earned outside the United States or Canada require a credential evaluation from a member of NACES or AICE. Official transcripts must be sent to BGC directly by the institution — transcripts forwarded by the applicant are not accepted.

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2. Industrial Hygiene and Ethics Coursework

Separate from the degree, BGC requires documented IH-specific coursework:

The "broad subjects" that at least half the hours must cover are toxicology, fundamentals of industrial hygiene, measurements, and controls. Conversion rules: one semester hour equals 15 academic contact hours or 20 continuing education contact hours; one quarter hour equals 10 academic or 13 continuing education hours; one CEU equals 10 continuing education contact hours.

Two traps:

• Attending a conference is not a course. Conference-affiliated professional development courses count; walking the technical sessions does not.
• Ethics hours do not count toward the IH hours. The 2 ethics contact hours are an additional, separate requirement.

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3. Professional Experience

You must document at least 4 years (48 months) of professional-level industrial hygiene practice. Professional-level means exercising independent judgement in anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control — not performing sampling to someone else's protocol.

Credit for accredited IH degrees:

Note carefully what BGC does not require: there is no requirement that your practice be supervised by a CIH. What is required is that at least one of your minimum two Professional Reference Questionnaires (PRQs) comes from a CIH familiar with your practice. The submitted PRQs must together cover the full number of months you claim.

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4. Deadlines, Windows, and Fees

   APPLICATION DEADLINE            TESTING WINDOW
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   February 1  ----------------->  Spring: April 1 - May 31
   August 1    ----------------->  Fall:   October 1 - November 30

All materials — transcripts, PRQs, coursework documentation, ethics documentation — must be postmarked by the deadline to be considered for that window. You may schedule only one examination per window.

A first attempt therefore costs $530. An approved application packet stays active for four consecutive windows (two years); after that you must submit an updated PRQ and pay the $160 reapplication fee to keep it alive.

Retakes: if you do not pass, you must wait for the next window and pay the $370 examination fee again. Cancelling with the test center at least 48 hours before the appointment carries the fee forward; cancelling later forfeits it.

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5. Certification Maintenance

The CIH is maintained on a five-year Certification Maintenance (CM) cycle:

• Earn and document 40 CM points per cycle, including at least 2 hours of ethics coursework.
• Points come from categories including professional practice, continuing education, technical committee service, publications, teaching and presenting, and mentoring — the subject matter must align with the CIH exam subject areas or the exam blueprint.
• Pay the annual fee on time. Late payment makes you "not in good standing," and unpaid fees for two successive years result in decertification in the third year.
• Recertification by examination is an alternative to CM points; eligible practitioners may test within the 18 months (three windows) immediately preceding their expiration date.

Exam relevance: the BGC ethics canons, the CM obligations, and the consequences of not being in good standing are themselves testable content under Domain III, Risk Management. Knowing your own credential's rules is part of professional practice.