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

University Of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell MA

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

Program Summary/Abstract: This is a proposal for a Northeast Hazardous Waste Worker Training Program to be implemented by the New England Consortium-Civil Service Employees Association (TNEC- CSEA), a partnership between the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML), four 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. Since 1987, TNEC-CSEA has trained 85,866 workers in 4,996 courses, for a total of 704,912 contact hours with NIEHS grant support. TNEC-CSEA will train workers exposed to hazardous materials; responding to disasters and post-event cleanups; at risk for workplace injuries and the misuse of opioids; and workers from underserved populations through high quality training based on evidence-based science and best practices in worker health and safety (H&S) and adult education. It draws on its strength as a consortium of a university, non-profit worker advocacy organizations, and a large union of public sector workers to network and build relationships with a multitude of government, university, business and non-profit stakeholders. TNEC-CSEA uses proven adult education methods that are hands-on, small-group, learner-centered, and worker empowerment oriented to maximize its impact on workplace H&S. TNEC-CSEA will train 3,629 workers annually over five years in the HWWTP projects in New York State (NYS) and the six New England (NE) states. Its target populations are: 200,000 workers in manufacturing, health care, hazardous materials response and remediation, environmental, construction, and utilities; and 300,000 workers in the public sector, in transportation, public safety, public works, health care, and environmental jobs, including federal, state, county, and municipal employees with focuses on underserved immigrant workers and community non-profits that serve them, job training, worker centers and tribal entities in NE. TNEC-CSEA seeks to expand and strengthen its program through new innovations in blended learning, infectious disease and disaster preparedness, climate change and chemical safety, and expanded delivery of training to vulnerable and underserved populations and those most at risk for injury and opioid use disorder. Continued TNEC-CSEA training will prevent injuries, illnesses and fatalities in thousands of workplaces by linking the best available science for worker protection with stakeholders in its network of safety and governmental professionals, unions, public health and environmental justice organizations, worker and job training centers, and tribal entities. It will use its advisory boards and highly skilled staff, experienced in adult education and worker H&S, to translate knowledge about a broad range of H&S problems – from hazardous materials to opioids to climate change and disasters. Protective and preventive interventions are put into practice, and trainings are conducted in Spanish. We will do this with direct training of workers and trainers, supporting the worker H&S movement, and linking stakeholders together in creative and fundamental ways.