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Hardhats help form new safety measures following disasters

Date Posted: September 19 2003

Thousands of building trades workers who volunteered to look for victims immediately after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers two years ago this month are among the event's "forgotten responders" - unnamed and untrained for the formidable work at hand.

For months after Sept. 11, 2001, building trades workers from the New York City area and from around the nation gave their time, blood, sweat and tears in cutting and lifting rubble away from the disaster area. Many were completely unprepared for the task, both emotionally and in terms of training and safety equipment.

Now, in an effort to make sure that future responders to the nation's disasters are at least basically prepared for what they're getting into, some of what construction workers need to know to get ready for disaster response is being formalized into union training programs.

Public and private groups, including the National Clearinghouse for Worker Safety and Health Training, federal OSHA and the Center to Protect Workers' Rights (CPWR) announced on Sept. 10 they will promote the efforts of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to protect construction workers who respond to disasters.

"On the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in our nation's history, we want to make sure we're well-prepared to provide help safety in any emergency, whether it's a terrorist attack, earthquake or deadly storm," said Edward Sullivan, president of the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO.

OSHA is developing a comprehensive train-the-trainer program to be offered through all of its regional training centers, and the CPWR, an arm of the Building Trades Department, is working closely with OSHA to expand the use of this training.

"NIEHS and OSHA are forging closer ties in the important work of protecting construction workers who get called to help with rescue and recovery operations," said Dr. Bruce Lippy, Director of the National Clearinghouse. "Despite the concerns with biological and chemical threats, the overwhelming majority of terrorist actions have been explosive devices, which means heavy equipment operators, iron workers, carpenters, laborers, and other skilled trades are often needed immediately to move debris to free survivors.

"We need to be sure these critical responders - often the forgotten responders - are adequately protected in their efforts."

CPWR's DVD-based course, Disaster Response: Safety and Health Training for Construction Workers, was introduced to 50 master building trades' union trainers from around the country on Sept. 11 and 12. CPWR developed the course in cooperation with unions, employers, and government partners. In October, the master trainers will begin to train 4,000 OSHA-authorized outreach instructors, who, in turn, will train thousands of construction workers nationwide.

The curriculum will include hazard recognition, personal protective equipment, decontamination, and incident command. The training was developed after consulting with construction workers who worked at the World Trade Center site after 9-11.

Lippy said this population of workers "deserves timely training, which was not the case at the World Trade Center cleanup where the construction workers received three hours of awareness training three months after the attacks."