Hazardous Waste Worker Training Program (HWWTP)

公用事业行业是我们能源基础设施的核心。公众依赖其服务，理所当然地认为电力总是流动的。但这项服务带来了一些公共和职业危害。工人因接触泄漏或泄漏的辐射、氯气、受多氯联苯污染的油、硫酸或高锰酸钾而患病和受伤。其他危害包括： 电刑、挖掘过程中塌方造成的挤压、石棉、汞、砷、铅、镉和其他重金属等等。我们在日常生活中看到UWUA成员在工作，但他们的工作危险被忽视。同样，来自工业的公共危害，如空气和水污染以及灾难性的毒素释放，往往被视为日常情况，直到发生戏剧性的事故，吸引我们的注意力。 关注公用事业行业，如三里岛。通常情况下，工人培训是预防或阻止工作场所或公众危险的第一道也是唯一的防线。 有时，这些看不见的危险会突然出现在人们的视野中，就像田纳西州金斯顿的煤灰泄漏事件一样。泄漏沉积约540万立方码的粉煤灰污泥进入埃默里河及其周边地区摧毁或损坏26所房屋，预计清理费用为10亿美元（2）。在美国环保署的《蒸汽发电法》中， 发电点源类别：最终详细报告： 据估计，目前燃煤发电厂排放的废水中释放的有毒污染物总量很大，这引起了人们对接触这些污染物的水生生物、野生动物和人类健康的长期影响的关注。“（3）尽管美国环保署尚未将煤灰归类为危险废物，但他们正在对其适用自己的危险废物标准，《综合环境反应、赔偿和责任法》现在被用作煤炭事故清理的指导标准。此外，EPA 确定美国至少有44个其他蓄水池对附近社区构成“高度危险”。 由于储存在蓄水池中的粉煤灰污泥不容易通过空气传播，因此不会对工人造成严重的健康风险。然而，发电工人可能暴露于干煤灰，干煤灰可能在发电设施中通过空气传播。煤燃烧的副产品从没有洗涤器的锅炉中逸出。在正流式锅炉的情况下，煤灰粉尘通过锅炉和盖子上的孔逸出 锅炉周围的一切。这种干煤灰粉尘通常含有无机砷、六价铬、汞和铅。当干燥时，这种灰尘可以通过吸入或摄入污染工人，对接触工人造成慢性健康问题。 公用事业工人通过各种场所接触危险物质。像工业工人一样，他们可能会接触到制造过程中现场使用的各种危险化学品（发电，净化饮用水）。与建筑工人一样，他们在进行安装、保养或维修喉管或管道的挖掘/挖沟作业时，可能会接触受污染的泥土。像 维修工人，他们必须去工业环境或其他潜在的危险场所安装，维护或修理分配产品的设备。最后，与应急响应工作人员一样，他们是自然、人为或意外灾害的第一反应者，负责维修和重建公用事业服务。

The utility industry forms the core of our energy infrastructure. The public depends on its services and rightly takes for granted that the electricity is always flowing. But with this service comes a number of public and occupational hazards. Workers suffer illnesses and injuries from exposure to spills or leaks of radiation, chlorine gas, PCB-contaminated oil, sulfuric acid, or potassium permanganate. Other hazards include: electrocution, crushing from cave-ins during excavations, asbestos, mercury, arsenic, lead, cadmium and other heavy metals to name a few. We see UWUA members at work in everyday lives, but their work hazards go unnoticed. Similarly, the public hazards from the industry such as air and water pollution and catastrophic releases of toxins often are seen as everyday circumstances until there is a dramatic accident that draws our attention to the utility industry, such as Three Mile Island. More often than not, a worker training is the first and only line of defense to either prevent or stem hazards in the workplace or the public. Sometimes these invisible hazards break into full view as happened during the Kingston, Tennessee coal ash spill. The spill deposited about 5.4 million cubic yards of fly ash sludge into the Emory River and its environs destroying or damaging 26 homes with an expected cleanup cost $1 Billion (2). There are less spectacular hazards of coal-fired electrical plants' combustion by-products that are reported in the EPA's Steam Electric Power Generating Point Source Category: Final Detailed Report: The total amount of toxic pollutants currently being released in wastewater discharges from coal-fired power plants is estimated to be significant and raises concerns regarding the long-term impacts to aquatic organisms, wildlife, and human health that are exposed to these pollutants."(3) Even though the EPA has yet to classify coal ash as hazardous waste, they are applying their own hazardous waste standard to it. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensations and Liability Act (CERCLA) is now used as the guiding standard for coal incident clean-ups. Additionally, the EPA has determined that at least 44 other holding ponds across the United States pose a "High Hazard" to nearby communities (4). Because coal fly ash sludge stored in holding ponds does not easily become airborne, it doesn't pose a severe health risk to workers. However, electrical generation workers can be exposed to dry coal ash that may become airborne in electrical generation facilities. Coal combustion by-products escape boilers that lack scrubbers. In the case of positive flow boilers, coal ash dust escapes through holes in the boiler and covers everything around the boiler. This dry coal ash dust often contains inorganic arsenic, hexavalent chromium, mercury, and lead. When dry, this ash dust can contaminate workers through inhalation or ingestion, causing chronic health problems to exposed workers. Utility workers are exposed to hazardous substances through a wide variety of venues. Like industrial workers they may be exposed to a broad array of hazardous chemicals that are used onsite during the manufacturing process (making electricity, purifying drinking water). Like construction workers, they may be exposed to contaminated soil during excavation/trenching operations to install, maintain or repair pipes or lines. Like service workers they must go to industrial settings or other potentially hazardous sites to install, maintain or repair the equipment that distributes the product. Finally, like Emergency Response workers they are first responders to natural, man-made or accidental disasters to repair and to reestablish utility service.