NIEHS Awards $37 Million to Train
Emergency and Hazardous Waste Workers
More than $37 million will go to workers
involved in emergency response and hazardous waste clean-up from awards just
made by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), one of
the National Institutes of Health. The grants will provide training designed to
protect workers and their communities from exposure to toxic materials
encountered during hazardous waste operations and chemical emergency response.
“There is no better way to protect the health
and safety of workers who are involved in our nation’s emergency response and
hazardous waste clean-up efforts than to provide them with the proper training
and education,” said NIEHS Director David A. Schwartz, M.D. “These awards will
provide workers with the skills and knowledge they need to protect themselves,
their communities, and our environment from exposure to hazardous materials.”
Some of these awards are granted under the
newly created Hazmat Disaster Preparedness Training Program. The new program was
developed in the aftermath of the World Trade Center Disaster, and is the result
of the lessons learned by NIEHS-funded workers who participated in the
subsequent clean-up of the affected area. These new awards will fund five
training programs:
- The Hazmat Disaster Preparedness Training Program will
fund the development of programs that will train workers in prevention and
response techniques related to future terrorist incidents.
- The Hazardous Waste Worker Training Program will
provide occupational safety and health training for workers who are involved
in hazardous waste removal or containment, or chemical emergency response.
- The Department of Energy Nuclear Weapons Cleanup
Training Program is targeted for workers engaged in environmental restoration,
waste treatment and emergency response at sites within the Department of
Energy’s nuclear weapons complex.
- The Minority Worker Training Program will deliver
comprehensive training for disadvantaged urban youth who are preparing for
employment in the environmental restoration and hazardous materials fields.
- The Brownfield Minority Worker Training Program will
provide comprehensive training and economic and environmental restoration to
disadvantaged residents impacted by brownfields.
The grants will be administered by the NIEHS
Worker Education and Training Program (WETP). “In the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina, the importance of funding and supporting hazmat disaster preparedness
training has never been clearer,” said Chip Hughes, director of the WETP.
The following is a list of organizations that
received grant awards for worker training programs:
- Laborers/Associated General Contractors Training Fund
($6.5 million)
- Center to Protect Workers’ Rights ($5.7 million)
- Steelworker Charitable and Education Organization
($3.4 million)
- International Chemical Workers Union Council ($2.9
million)
- International Brotherhood of Teamsters/National Labor
College ($2.5 million)
- International Union of Operating Engineers ($2.5
million)
- University of Medicine/Dentistry of New Jersey ($2.1
million)
- Office of Applied Innovations, Inc. ($1.9 million)
- International Association of Fire Fighters ($1.6
million)
- University of
California at Los Angeles ($1.4
million)
- Dillard University Deep
South Center for Environmental Justice ($1.1
million)
- Kirkwood Community College Consortium for Safety
Training ($1.1 million)
- University of
Massachusetts at Lowell ($1.1 million)
- United Auto Workers of America ($735 thousand)
- Midwest Consortium for Hazardous Waste Worker Training
($735 thousand)
- American Federation of State, County & Municipal
Employees ($625 thousand)
- University of
Alabama at Birmingham ($538
thousand)
- Service Employees International Union
Education/Support Fund ($508 thousand)
In a separate action, NIEHS also will award an
$863 thousand contract to MDB, Inc., a privately-owned communications and
research consulting company, for the management of the Institute’s National
Clearinghouse for Worker Safety and Health Training. The clearinghouse is the
country’s primary source for curricula, technical reports, and weekly news
related to hazardous waste issues. More information on the National
Clearinghouse is available at http://www.wetp.org/wetp.
Since the initiation of the Hazardous Waste
Worker Training Program in 1987, NIEHS has funded a network of non-profit
organizations that develop and deliver peer-reviewed educational materials to
workers who are involved in handling hazardous waste or responding to releases
of hazardous materials. During that time, more than 1.2 million workers have
received NIEHS-supported worker safety and health training.
NIEHS, a component of the National
Institutes of Health, supports research to understand the effects of the
environment on human health. For more information about worker training and
other environmental health topics, please visit our website at http://www.niehs.nih.gov.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) —
The Nation's Medical Research
Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the
U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal agency
for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical
research, and investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and
rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.
For detailed information about each
of these programs and organizations, go to http://www.niehs.nih.gov/wetp/about/NIEHS_WETP_awards_release_9_2_2005.pdf or http://www.niehs.nih.gov/wetp