Iranian HSE Community Warns Health Minister: Hasty Academic Department Mergers Threaten Industrial Safety Resilience and Workplace Accident Prevention Systems

In a formal, evidence-based letter addressed to Dr. Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi, Minister of Health and Medical Education, the Iranian Association of Occupational Health Specialists raised an alarm regarding the university-level academic department restructuring and consolidation plan. The association called for an immediate reconsideration of the policy and the preservation of the independent departmental status of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Engineering. The academic and professional community emphasized that administrative downsizing and structural mergers of OHS departments directly undermine industrial risk prevention frameworks, reduce safety margins across national industries, and lead to a surge in severe occupational accidents and work-related diseases.

The official correspondence draws on sovereign regulations and statutory mandates, citing Article 1 of the Law on the Structure and Responsibilities of the Ministry of Health (enacted in 1988) along with Articles 85 and 93 of the Labor Law of the Islamic Republic of Iran. These legal frameworks classify worker health, occupational hygiene, and the mandatory formation of technical protection committees staffed by qualified safety experts as core statutory responsibilities. Consequently, educating and training specialized personnel in occupational health and safety constitutes a vital strategic imperative for domestic industries and manufacturing facilities, rather than a mere internal bureaucratic procedure.

HSE experts highlighted that Occupational Health and Safety Engineering possesses a distinct multidisciplinary profile—encompassing the identification, assessment, and engineering control of workplace chemical, physical, and biological stressors, ergonomic design, fire safety, and industrial catastrophe risk management. These specialized capabilities fundamentally separate OHS from other branches of public health, rendering any administrative consolidation based merely on shared broad health designations technically flawed. International academic precedents reinforce this position; for instance, the University of South Florida (USF) reversed its consolidated structure and reinstated independent OHS departments following governance and operational setbacks, proving that uniform integration models yield enduring adverse consequences for mission-critical disciplines.

Furthermore, referencing Article 105 of the Seventh National Development Plan and analytical reports from the Parliament’s Research Center, the letter stressed that organizational streamlining must enhance institutional resilience and service quality. Any negligible operational budget reductions gained from merging academic departmental management would be vastly outweighed by the massive financial burdens imposed on social security insurers and the public healthcare system due to increased industrial fatalities, permanent disabilities, and occupational diseases. Notably, the secretaries of the relevant Academic Specialty Boards had already submitted an official notification on July 14, 2026, expressing unified technical opposition to the merger plan.

The letter concludes by outlining four targeted demands from the national HSE community: the immediate suspension of the merger decree pending comprehensive health, safety, and economic impact assessments; the establishment of a joint consultative committee with representatives from the specialty board and professional associations; the integration of operational criteria—specifically the severe nationwide demand for certified safety and health officers on production lines—into higher education planning; and the strict preservation of the academic identity, programmatic autonomy, and international recognition of Occupational Health and Safety Engineering within the health higher education system.