On Sept. 30, 1971, the Office of Occupational Health and Safety was formally instituted by Princeton University. For the first time in the school's history, radiation safety, industrial hygiene and general campus safety would be unified in a centralized office.     

This represented an important turning point for Princeton, whose departments—like most Universities at this time—operated a patchwork of safety programs and protocols with widely varying degrees of rigor and oversight. Safety programs mandated by law or government contract, such as those dealing with radiation, were robust, while others relied on departmental standards or the informal efforts of individuals. Many spheres of University operations had no formal safety standards at all. 

All this changed in 1971 with the creation of OHS, now known as EHS—the Office of Environmental Health and Safety. Join us as we mark and celebrate a half century of safety at Princeton University!