(a) No person shall practice or offer to practice as a Certified Industrial Hygienist, use any advertisement, business card, or letterhead or make any other verbal or written communication that the person is a Certified Industrial Hygienist or acquiesce in such a representation unless that person is certified by the American Board of Industrial Hygiene.
(b) No person shall practice or offer to practice as an Industrial Hygienist in Training, use any advertisement, business card, or letterhead or make any other verbal or written communication that the person is an Industrial Hygienist in Training or acquiesce in such a representation unless that person is certified by the American Board of Industrial Hygiene.
(c) A violation of this Article shall be punished as a Class 2 misdemeanor.
(d) Any person, including the Attorney General, may apply to the superior court for injunctive relief to restrain a person who has violated this Article from continuing these illegal practices. The court may grant injunctive relief regardless of whether criminal prosecution or other action has been or may be instituted as a result of the violation. In the court's consideration of the issue of whether to grant or continue an injunction sought under this subsection, a showing of conduct in violation of the terms of this Article shall be sufficient to meet any requirement of general North Carolina injunction law for irreparable harm.
(e) The venue for actions brought under this Article is the superior court of any county in which the illegal or unlawful acts are alleged to have been committed or in the county where the defendant resides.
(f) Nothing in this Article shall be construed as authorizing a person certified in accordance with this Article to engage in the practice of engineering, nor to restrict or otherwise affect the rights of any person licensed to practice engineering under Chapter 89C of the General Statutes; provided, however, that no person shall use the title "Certified Industrial Hygienist" unless the person has complied with the provisions of this Article. (1997-195, s. 1.)