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Which abbreviation is most used for "Health, Safety and Environment"? I keep seeing different abbreviations, and a quick search on Google shows that they are all used widely. But does anyone actually know if there is one "correct" abbreviation?

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I don't see how this could possibly be considered a duplicate of that question, @F'x. – Marthaª May 3 '11 at 13:48
I was wondering about the same... – masarah May 3 '11 at 13:49

3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

according to this, it's HSE :)

While this is not a definitive answer (there isn't one!), it certainly is established in the UK and Norway, too. In the UK the more informal term is "health and safety", just as Norwegians talk about "helse og miljø".

but also check ISO - it's EHS :)

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Yes, In Norwegian it is HMS, which would be HES in English. I have also seen that used. But if we look away from Norwegian translations of it completely - what is used in English? – masarah May 3 '11 at 11:48
@masarah if you look at the link the vote went 5+7 for HSE; 5-1 for EHS and 5-1 for SHE; there's also a mention of how it is used in German, Spanish, French and Italian :) – Paul Amerigo Pajo May 3 '11 at 12:01
Saw that. Thank you. – masarah May 3 '11 at 12:35
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Note that in the UK. HSE is the Health and Safety Executive, in charge of safety legislation, equivalent to OSHA in the USA. – mgb May 3 '11 at 16:02
@mgb And in Ireland, the HSE is the Health Service Executive, roughly equivalent to your NHS. – TRiG Apr 8 '12 at 14:43
up vote 4 down vote

It doesn't appear that there is a "correct" version. There is no official organization for Environment, Health and Safety. Wikipedia lists both as usable and includes HES to boot:

Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) – also Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) or HES – is often used as the name of a department in corporations and government agencies.

If you are referring to a specific department, you should obviously use their name. If you are creating a new department, I suggest looking up your local city or state department to see if they offer a specific form. I prefer EHS because it doesn't collide with the word "she" while searching which made it a little hard to search for usage.

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Thank you. I'm mostly asking because I keep meeting it in translation work, so I just wanted to know if there was something that was definitely "wrong". – masarah May 3 '11 at 13:11
@masa: Not as far as I can tell. In the case of translations I would try to keep the order as close to the original as possible or ask your office/superior if they have a preference for the term. If the original terms are just too far apart, pick one for your use and stick with it until you have a good reason to change. :) – MrHen May 3 '11 at 13:35
MrHen: of course. Just wanted a second opinion before I picked one :) – masarah May 3 '11 at 13:45
up vote 0 down vote

EHS is the most common, though it's expanded differently in different cases -- Environment, Health, and Safety; Environmental Health & Safety; Environmental, Health, Safety (which, counterintuitively, refer to the same sorts of things).

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I have actually never come across it used as EHS. Interesting... – masarah May 3 '11 at 13:14
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Almost every research university in the US has such a department, and 80+% of them are called EHS. I can't speak for the UK or other countries here, that's outside my professional experience. – Charles May 3 '11 at 13:18
I'm less sure of what the trends are in industry. "Ignoring the problem" is probably more common than EHS. – Charles May 3 '11 at 13:19

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