This document discusses the history and evolution of industrial hygiene and safety. It begins by outlining some of the earliest references to occupational health from 400 BC by Hippocrates and the first respiratory protective equipment in the 1st century AD. It then discusses the establishment of occupational health and safety laws in the US in 1970. The rest of the document covers the origins of industrial hygiene in Venezuela in the 1960s, the benefits of industrial hygiene like reducing costs and improving productivity, and some negative impacts of poor industrial hygiene such as accidents and their costs.