About us

Historical outline – milestones

1937

Creation of Protective Devices Design Office and Industrial Safety Counselling Centre at the Museum of Technology, active until the start of World War II and being the origin of CIOP.

1947

Creation of Occupational Safety Devices Design Office, continuing the activity of Protective Devices Design Office and Industrial Safety Counselling Centre, and located at Tamka 1, Warsaw – the later seat of CIOP.

1950

Act of 4th April 1950 on establishing the Central Institute of Labour Protection. Resolution of the Council of Ministers of 31st May 1950 on taking over the Occupational Safety Devices Design Office by the Central Institute of Labour Protection.

1950

Creating a statute for CIOP, granting the Institute legal personality, rights to issue scientific and popular publications on labour protection and to manufacture occupational health and safety equipment.
The Institute consisted of nine departments: Methodology and Organisation of Occupational Health and Safety, Ventilation and Air Conditioning, Chemistry, Design, Electric, Mechanics, Agriculture, Physiology and Occupational Hygiene as well as Personal Protective Equipment. There were also four industry-related branches in Kraków (connected with construction of Nowa Huta Steel Mill), Bytom (Metallurgy), Łódź (Textiles) and Gdańsk (Sea Industry).

1951

The beginnings of the scientific library in the field of occupational health and safety. Establishing of CIOP's Editorial Committee.

1952

Ordinance of the President of National Commission for Economic Planning obliges CIOP to approve personal protective equipment designs for manufacturing.

1956

Supervision of the work of the Institute is taken over by the Central Council of Trade Unions.

1961

CIOP's Centre for Scientific-Technical Information becomes the National Information Centre for Occupational Safety and Hygiene in cooperation with International Occupational Safety and Health Information Centre (CIS-ILO) in Geneva.

1973

Supervision of the Institute's activities is given to the Ministry of Labour, Wages and Social Affairs (presently the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy).

1984

The Institute chairs and runs the secretariat for the Interdepartmental Commission for Updating Threshold Limit Values of Harmful Agents in the Working Environment.

1992

Opening of the Institute's new seat in Warsaw in Czerniakowska 16.Dissolution of the Institute’s branches in Gdańsk and Bytom.
Renovation and adaptation of the building in Łódź at Wierzbowa 48 for the Department of Personal Protective Equipment.

1994

Polish Office for Testing and Certification (PCBC) accredits the Institute as a product certification body - certifying machines, manufacturing devices as well as personal and collective protective equipment under the national certification system.
Establishing of the Centre for Education.

1995

PCBC accredits the Institute's testing laboratories

1996

Central Commission for Scientific Titles and Degrees authorises the Institute to confer doctorates in the area of Environmental Engineering.

2000

The Institute receives accreditation allowing it to certificate occupational safety and health management systems.
The Institute obtains accreditation as a body certifying the competence of staff working in the area of occupational safety and health.

2001

The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy entrusted the Institute with the function of the National Focal Point of the European Agency for Occupational Safety and Health (Bilbao).

2002

The Institute is granted the status of a state research institute by way of a resolution of the Council of Ministers of 5 November 2002.

2004

The Institute is granted the status of a notified body at the European Commission, under the directives on PPE (89/686/EEC), machinery (98/37/EC) and on the noise emission in the environment by equipment for use outdoors (2000/14/EC)
The Institute’s calibration laboratoriesobtain accreditation as the body calibrating instruments supporting occupational safety and health measurements.

2006

Including the quarterly International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics (JOSE) published in English by the Institute, into the Master Journal List and indexing in databases of Institute of Scientific Information (Thomson Reuters) in Philadelphia

2012

Decision on the construction of a second building for the Institute at Czerniakowska 16, Warsaw.