Hazardous Materials Worker Health and Safety Training (U45), Cooperative Agreement

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This is a proposal for a Northeast Region health and safety (H&S) training program for workers engaged in hazardous waste operation and emergency response (HAZWOPER). It will have two components: Hazardous Waste Worker (HWW) and Hazmat Disaster Preparedness (HDP) training. These will be implemented by The New England Consortium-Civil Service Employees Association (TNEC-CSEA), a partnership of the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) (lead organization), five New England coalitions for occupational safety and health (COSH groups) in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, and CSEA Local 1000, AFSCME in New York. HAZWOPER work is inherently dangerous, presenting potential workplace exposures to chemical, biological, radioactive, nuclear, and highly explosive agents which can lead to occupational injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. The H&S training provides this workforce with enhanced abilities to protect themselves and surrounding communities from hazardous materials exposures. It is presented in a participatory manner, with opportunities for practice and learning from peers, in accordance with adult education principles. Since 1987, TNEC-CSEA has developed and delivered this training with NIEHS grant support and has trained 35,202 workers in 2,212 courses, for a total of 479,541 contact hours. The HWW Training Program will provide hazardous waste worker and/or emergency responder H&S training to over 2,000 workers annually in the six New England states (1,250) and New York (750); 60% of training hours will be hands-on, multiple-day training courses. The HDP Training Program will provide HDP H&S training annually to at least 1000 New York state, county, and municipal workers annually; 30 % of training hours will be hands-on, multiple day train-the-trainer courses, and 69% of hours will be in single or partial day courses. The primary disaster focus will be extreme weather events and other natural disasters. Combined targeted worker populations include 175,000 private sector and 318,450 public sector workers in New England states and 93,669 public sector workers in New York. They work in the hazardous waste remediation and/or management sectors, construction, manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, public and private infrastructure operation and maintenance, public and private facilities maintenance and environmental servicing, healthcare and education services, and the full range of emergency response personnel. The HDP targets public sector skilled support personnel. An immigrant Worker Center network capacity building pilot project in Massachusetts and Rhode Island is proposed to provide HDP H&S awareness training (muck and gut and mold after flooding) in Spanish and Portuguese for Latino and Brazilian immigrant workers (40 workers annually). The HDP aims to support more resilient hazmat disaster response, remediation, and recovery by employers of these public sector and immigrant workers, as well as the communities who rely on their efforts. This proposal aims to strengthen TNEC-CSEA members' capacity as regional H&S movement leaders.