AFC Hazmat Worker Health and Safety Training Cooperative Agreement (U45)

Alabama Fire College, Tuscaloosa AL

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Abstract

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): With this application, the Alabama Fire College (AFC) Workplace Safety Training Program (WST) proposes to continue delivering model NIEHS-funded training to two worker populations - members and employees of Native American tribes nationwide and Public Safety Personnel within the southeastern U.S. This will be accomplished using funding from the NIEHS Worker Training Program's Hazardous Waste Worker Training Program (HWWTP) and Hazmat Disaster Preparedness Training Program (HDPTP) program areas. Both target populations face significant health and safety risks due to potential exposure to hazards during (1) emergency response to uncontrolled releases of hazardous materials (hazmats) and (2) emergency response to disasters caused by terrorist attacks, accidental hazmat releases, or severe weather events. They also face highly dangerous illegal methamphetamine labs. All of these emergencies represent significant hazards to the health and safety of the responders and the communities they serve. The 592 federally recognized Native American tribes include 1.9 million members living in the contiguous 48 states and Alaska on over 50 million acres of land through which run hundreds of thousands of miles of rivers, roads, and railroad rights-of-way, making transportation accidents a significant threat. Additionally, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 69,570 firefighters, 50,580 emergency medical technicians and paramedics and 128,480 police and sheriff's patrol officers in the southeastern states where the program has been most active: Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina. AFC will be joined by Native American Fish and Wildlife Society and United South and Eastern Tribes to promote the proposed training to tribal emergency response personnel. AFC will use the growing network of contacts developed over its 27-year history to carry training to public sector responders. This training will include AFC's existing courses in topics such as hazardous materials emergency response, incident command systems, air monitoring, mass casualty incident triage and command, confined space rescue, meth lab awareness, and responder safety during natural and man- made disasters. The training will be delivered directly by AFC instructors and through secondary training by trainees who take the training back to their tribes and local agencies. AFC instructors are projected to directly train over 2,875 Native American responders and over 4,100 public sector responders in both programs. In addition, peer trainers will use AFC materials to train an additional 2,250 of their peers. In total for the five years, AFC projects to conduct over 415 classes to over 7,350 trainees in 82,210 contact hours through direct and secondary training. PUBLIC HEALTH SIGNIFICANCE: The Workplace Safety Training Program of the Alabama Fire College proposes to provide training to Native American and public sector emergency response personnel that will prepare them to safely respond to hazardous materials releases resulting from transportation and industrial incidents, natural and manmade disasters, and illegal drug labs. Both target populations are charged with responding to such emergencies by Environmental Protection Agency, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Department of Transportation, and Department of Homeland Security regulatations, but do not have sufficient budgets and resources to provide such training. The proposed project will bring critical training to over 7,300 responders in both populations that will help them to better protec themselves and the communities they serve.