HWWT

B.1.工人安全、健康和安保培训的背景和需求 危险废物清理工作使补救工人、运输工人、仓库工人、铁路工人和建筑工人面临广泛的安全和健康危害。工人在挖掘、拆除、现场废物运输作业和危险材料仓储过程中尤其危险。在可能接触化学物质的地区工作的工人被要求穿上化学防护服并戴上口罩。 危险废物清理现场的建筑工人面临着建筑项目中常见的安全隐患，包括高空作业、挖掘作业、高空坠物、手工搬运材料、电气危险等。许多修复承包商都是建筑公司。当建筑工地发现以前的工业用途或非法处置的污染物时，该工地成为危险废物工地的情况并不少见。 仓库被用来储存各种危险和易燃材料。仓库中储存的材料可能每天都会发生变化。仓库员工被要求将危险、易燃或不相容的材料转移到卡车上运输，转移到仓库内的其他存储地点，或转移到处理和处置设施。 运输和铁路工人可能会接触到他们处理的危险材料。铁路工人在发生涉及危险材料的事故后，在移动损坏的轨道车厢和修复铁轨时，会暴露在危险材料中。多达70%的铁路工人可能接触到火车运输的危险废物(Rosenthal，1999)。 每年运输超过30亿吨受管制的危险材料，包括炸药、毒药、腐蚀剂、易燃品和放射性材料。危险材料运输的大小从几盎司到数千吨不等。每天有120万危险物质通过卡车、铁路和船只运输。这些货物中的许多需要在不同模式之间转换。货物通过人口稠密或敏感的地区运送，在这些地区发生的事故可能会导致 生命损失、重伤或者重大环境破坏的。(研究和创新技术管理局，2008年)。突发危险物品事故造成工人伤亡，并影响周边社区。2008年，向交通部报告了16,804起运输危险材料事故，导致202人非住院受伤，17人住院，9人死亡，总损失为55,709,476美元(交通部2008年)。 危险材料运输紧急情况的例子如下：2009年7月，一辆油罐车在马萨诸塞州纽伯里波特的95号州际公路上倾覆。一名男子和一名14岁男孩受重伤，3人在附近的医院接受治疗后出院。(《格洛斯特每日时报》2009年7月9日。)这辆油罐车将8000加仑汽油泄漏到1-95，迫使市政府关闭了该地区的公共设施，因为蒸汽读数很高，并迫使附近社区疏散。泄漏的汽油泄漏到通往梅里马克河的暴风雨排水沟，导致船只交通改道。2008年12月，田纳西州金斯顿化石工厂的一道堤坝坍塌，在300英亩的面积上释放了540万立方码的火山灰。据估计，220万磅的火山灰可能含有大量的砷、铅、钡、铬和 锰。清理金斯敦化石厂将需要危险材料工人对现场进行补救，并将火山灰从受污染地区运送到阿拉巴马州和佐治亚州的储存、处理和处置地点。TVA预计补救和清理成本将在5.25亿美元至8.25亿美元之间。(TVA网站) 2004年，一辆火车罐车的氯气泄漏在德克萨斯州圣安东尼奥附近产生了一股气体烟柱，导致售票员和两名居民死亡。另有50人住院，其中2人情况危急(Seewalt，2004年)。由于这场灾难，60名警察、消防和治安调度员参加了NLC的在线危险物品运输意识课程。2006年1月6日，一列火车在南卡罗来纳州的格拉尼特维尔脱轨。火车工程师和8名居民死于40吨氯气的泄漏。数百名市民遭受了各种形式的呼吸道影响。 工人每天面临的暴露是运输工人需要充分培训的另一个原因。这些工人中的许多人多年来一直在工作，没有意识到日常活动中所需的健康影响和必要的预防措施。学员的以下评论表明他们缺乏理解和认识： 当铁轨上发生事故(漏油)时，我们总是被告知要么掩盖它，要么忽略它，我会让他们做正确的事情。 一辆氯气车翻倒了，没人知道该怎么办。一半的人想让我们去，另一半人想让我们修理它。培训帮助我意识到了要做的重要事情。

b.1. Background and Need for Worker Safety, Health and Security Training Hazardous waste clean-up operations expose remediation workers, transportation workers, warehouse workers, rail workers and construction workers to a wide range of safety and health hazards. Workers are especially at risk during excavation, demolition, site waste hauling operations, and warehousing of hazardous materials. Workers in areas where chemical exposures are possible are required to wear chemical protective clothing and respirators. On-site construction workers at hazardous waste clean-up sites face safety hazards typical of construction projects, including working at heights, working in excavations, falling objects, manual materials handling, electrical hazards, etc. Many remediation contractors are construction companies. It is not unusual for a construction site to become a hazardous waste site when contaminants from prior industrial uses or illegal disposal are discovered at the site. Warehouses are used to store a variety of hazardous and combustible materials. The materials stored at warehouses may change from day to day. Warehouse employees are required to move hazardous, combustible, or incompatible materials to trucks for shipment, to other storage sites within the warehouse complex, or to treatment and disposal facilities. Transportation and railroad workers are potentially exposed to the hazardous materials they handle. Railroad workers are exposed to hazardous materials when they move damaged rail cars and repair tracks after an accident involving hazardous materials. Up to 70% of rail workers are potentially exposed to hazardous waste hauled by train (Rosenthal 1999). More than 3 billion tons of regulated hazardous materials, including explosives, poisons, corrosives, flammables and radioactive materials are transported each year. The hazardous materials shipments range in size from several ounces to thousands of tons. There are 1.2 million daily hazardous materials movements via truck, rail, and boat. Many of these shipments require transfer between modes. The shipments are routed through densely populated or sensitive areas where an incident could result in the loss of life, serious injury, or significant environmental damage. (Research and Innovative Technology Administration, 2008). Accidental hazardous materials incidents injure and kill workers, and affect surrounding communities. In 2008, 16,804 transportation hazardous materials incidents were reported to DOT resulting in 202 non-hospitalized injuries,17 hospitalizations, 9 fatalities, and damages totally $55,709,476 (DOT 2008). Examples of hazardous materials transportation emergencies include the following: In July, 2009 a gas tanker overturned on Interstate 95 in Newburyport, MA. One man and a 14-year old boy were critically injured and 3 people were treated at a near-by hospital and released. (Gloucester Daily Times, July 9 2009.) The gas tanker spilled 8,000 gallons of gasoline onto 1-95, forced city government to shut off utilities in the area because of a high vapor reading, and forced the evacuation of near-by neighborhoods. Gasoline from the spill leaked into the storm drains that led into the Merrimack River causing boat traffic to be diverted. In December, 2008 a dike at the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant failed and released 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash over a 300 acre area. It has been estimated that 2.2 million pounds of the ash may contain significant levels of arsenic, lead, barium, chromium and manganese. The clean-up of the Kingston Fossil Plant will require hazardous materials workers to remediate the site and transport ash from the contaminated area to storage, treatment, and disposal sites in Alabama and Georgia. TVA expects remediation and clean-up costs to range from $525 million to $825 million. (TVA Website) In 2004 a chlorine leak from a rail tanker car created a gas plume near San Antonio, TX that killed the conductor and 2 residents. Another 50 people were hospitalized, 2 in critical condition (Seewalt, 2004). As a result of this disaster, 60 police, fire and sheriff's dispatchers participate in NLC's on-line hazardous materials transportation awareness course. On January 6, 2006 a train derailed in Graniteville, SC. The train engineer and 8 residents died from the release of 40 tons of chlorine. Hundreds of citizens suffered various forms of respiratory effects. Everyday exposures that workers face is another reason transportation workers need adequate training. Many of these workers have spent years on the job unaware of the health effects and necessary precautions needed in their daily activities. The following comments from trainees demonstrate the lack of understanding and awareness: ¿ "When there is an incident on the tracks (a spill) we are always told to just cover it up or ignore it, and I am going to make them to do the right thing." ¿ "A chlorine car over turned, nobody knew what to do. Half the people wanted us to go; the other half wanted us to fix it. Training has helped me realize the important thing to do."