ABSTRACT
This chapter describes that who is who in H&S is rather like trying to describe an overgrown garden. Early theories on occupational safety started in the USA. The ways of managing national businesses around the world tend to match the characteristics of national culture; this is to a limited extent gradually being eroded by globalization. UK H&S is managed in an environment of an adversarial political system of politics and an adversarial legal system with pressure groups representing different aspects of business (TUC and CBI) and a nominally independent civil service. The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) is based in Des Plaines, Illinois and the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) is based in Wigston, Leicestershire, UK. Between the two of them they dominate how the profession of occupational health and safety is taught and developed. Providing the services that industry and commerce need to satisfy health and safety requirements are a host of service providers.
