Hazardous Waste Worker Training Program (HWWTP)

危险废物工人培训计划（HWWTP）

• 批准号: 8015661
• 负责人: D. Michael Langford
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: UTILITY WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-08-01 至 2015-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8015661
• 关键词: Accidents; Acute; Address; Age; Aging; Air; Americas; Area; Arsenic; Asbestos; Attention; Awareness; Breathing; Budgets; Businesses; Cadmium; Categories; Certification; Chemicals; Chemistry; Chronic; Classification; Coal; Collection; Communication; Communities; Country; Data Collection; Department of Energy; Deposition; Development; Disasters; Disease; Dust; Educational Curriculum; Educational workshop; Effectiveness; Electricity; Emergency Situation; Emergency medical service; Employee; Ensure; Environmental sludge; Equipment; Evaluation; Event; Explosion; Exposure to; Financial compensation; Fossil Fuels; Funding; Future; Gases; Generations; Grant; Hazardous Chemicals; Hazardous Substances; Hazardous Waste; Hazardous Waste Sites; Health; Heavy Metals; Home environment; Hour; Human; Human Resources; Hurricane; Industrial Waste; Industry; Ingestion; Injury; Institutes; Interruption; Island; Joints; Lead; Letters; Life; Locales; Location; Maintenance; Manuals; Maps; Measures; Mechanics; Medical Waste; Memory; Mercury; Metals; Methods; Modeling; Modification; Monitor; Names; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; Natural Disasters; Nature; New York; Nonprofit Organizations; Nuclear; Nuclear Weapon; Ohio; Oils; Paper; Participant; Perception; Plants; Polychlorinated Biphenyls; Population; Positioning Attribute; Potassium Permanganate; Power Plants; Prevention; Problem Solving; Process; Progress Reports; Radiation; Recovery; Recruitment Activity; Refuse Disposal; Reporter; Reporting; Research Infrastructure; Resources; Retirement; Risk; Rivers; Role; Safety; Science; Secure; Services; Sewage; Shapes; Site; Soil; Source; Steam; Structure; Sulfuric Acids; System; Techniques; Technology; Telephone; Television; Tennessee; Time; Tornadoes; Toxin; Trainers Training; Training; Training Activity; Training Programs; Trust; Underserved Population; United States; United States Virgin Islands; Update; Water; Water Pollution; Water Purification; Weather; Work; Workplace; aged; aquatic organism; base; chlorine gas; chromium hexavalent ion; cost; drinking water; emergency service responder; experience; falls; fly ash; follow-up; hazard; improved; injured; killings; manufacturing process; meetings; member; nuclear power; occupational hazard; operation; outreach; pollutant; practical application; prevent; programs; prospective; purge; repaired; response; retinal rods; satisfaction; stem; symposium; tool; transmission process; wasting; water treatment; web site

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. Rationale for the training: Utility workers can be exposed to hazardous waste onsite at the generation plant; offsite in the transmission, distribution or collection system, servicing industrial and hazardous waste sites; or responding to a utility loss of service emergency. Onsite, large storage tanks of hazardous chemicals may leak and expose workers to toxins. In addition, pipes or valves that transport chemicals to treat water at electrical generation or water purification may leak and expose workers to hazardous chemicals, including incompatibles, during maintenance and/or repair. Hazardous waste is stored at many generation plants, including spent nuclear fuel rods or slurry ponds containing chemical residue from scrubber purge, boiler blow down, metal cleaning wastewater, and miscellaneous cooling water, as well as coal combustion by-products. Offsite, workers are exposed to unknown contaminants during maintenance or repair of underground pipes or lines. They can be exposed from toxins in the soil during excavation or, in the case of sewer workers, exposed to toxic industrial waste or medical waste in the line. Finally, utility workers are first responders to emergencies. They respond to emergencies both at their home location, as well as throughout the Nation at pre-agreed geographical regions through Mutual Aid Pacts (MPAs) which send utility workers to repair all manner of utility service outages in the most disagreeable and dangerous conditions. Depending on the emergency, whether natural or man-made, utility service interruptions in highly dangerous chemical, petrochemical, refining, or other industrial sites, as well as hazardous waste cleanup sites, require utility workers, in their role as first responders, to confront a variety of hazards while working to restore utility service. The workforce of the utility industry is also in flux, which brings a different set of hazards. The industry is experiencing unprecedented changes due to former deregulation and restructuring. In addition to the reduction of workforce numbers over the years when new workers were not added to the workforce, we are now experiencing a crisis of an aging workforce. "The average age of an energy utility employee is steadily rising; since 1995 the number of industry workers aged 55 and older has increased 225%." (5) One major consequence of this has been the loss of experienced workers primarily through retirement and attrition, and with them, the loss of institutional memory of workplace health and safety. It is predicted that this loss will continue and accelerate, with an estimated 50% of the workforce retiring in the next 4 to 8 years (6). The remaining managers and workers struggle to adapt to a rapidly changing structure, while continuing to provide essential services such as power-grid infrastructure maintenance, electrical power distribution, sewage recovery and treatment, gas distribution, and water purification and distribution. Training is now and will increasingly be essential to provide a safe and healthy workplace. That is why the UWUA has established the Power4America to partner with management to begin the process of ensuring the necessary training resources for these crucial years. Additionally we are reaching out to the community in anticipation of this need and will be conducting outreach health and safety training for prospective workers. This training will help prepare these community members to work safely in these facilities once they are employed. We will focus our recruitment efforts on underserved members of the community surrounding our represented NRC facilities in the first year of the grant. If funded we will extend this training to other facilities nationwide in future grant years'. Members ofthe UWUA occupy a wide variety of positions that compose the utility industry, including electricians, mechanics, steam operators, underground maintenance workers, overhead line workers, nuclear power operators (and other nuclear classifications), transformer personnel, painters, and office personnel. UWUA members need training because their work environment exposes them to accidents and injuries due to exposure to hazardous substances. By the nature of the work, utility workers must move throughout their service areas, including waste disposal or industrial sites to maintain and repair their utility lines. Water, sewage, and electrical transmission and distribution workers must be prepared to respond to emergencies either at their own utility or through MPAs to an emergency in another locale caused by a natural disaster, terrorist event, or accidental catastrophe. Whether onsite, offsite or in an emergency response situation, acute or chronic injury and disease associated with the clean-up of a hazardous substance release or an accidental release of radiation from spent fuel rods or toxic airborne coal ash waste, may chronically impair their health and that ofthe surrounding communities. The Need: It is no secret that our infrastructure is in sorry shape. It is estimated that hundreds of billions of dollars are needed to rebuild our power lines, our water mains, and our gas pipelines. In the meantime, utility workers engage in reactive maintenance: they must deal with thousands of water main breaks, fallen powerlines and gas-line repairs, especially in the winter months. To deal with the massive weather emergencies like hurricanes, tornadoes, and winter storms, utilities often borrow crews from each other in a mutual aid system. It is very difficult and chaotic process but, for the most part, it has kept our electricity, water, and gas available to the public and the industry. It is during these emergency responses that utility workers come in contact with hazardous situations, depending upon the emergency they are responding to. New York Times reporter James Barron provided a small glimpse ofthe magnitude ofthe problem faced by utility workers when he was describing an underground steam-pipe explosion caused by a nearby water main break. Two utility workers and a pedestrian were killed in this explosion and 24 others were injured. "It's a jungle down there. Beneath the 23 square miles of Manhattan are 11 million miles of telephone wires, 19,000 miles of electrical cable, 6,000 miles of water mains, 4,000 miles of gas lines, 100 miles of cable television wires and 105 miles of steam pipes." (7)

公用事业行业构成了我们能源基础设施的核心。公众依靠其服务，正确地认为电力总是在流动。但是，随着这项服务，有许多公共和职业危害。工人因暴露于溢出物或辐射泄漏，氯气，含PCB污染的油，硫酸或高锰钾而遭受疾病和伤害。其他危害包括： 电力，在发掘，石棉，汞，砷，铅，镉和其他重金属中从洞穴中粉碎，仅举几例。我们看到UWUA成员在日常生活中工作，但他们的工作危害并未引起人们的注意。同样，该行业的公共危害，例如空气和水污染以及毒素的灾难性释放，通常被视为日常情况，直到发生巨大的事故吸引了我们 注意公用事业行业，例如三英里岛。通常，工人培训是预防工作场所或公众危害的第一个也是唯一的防御线。 有时，这些无形的危害像田纳西州煤灰溢油事件中的金斯敦期间一样浮出水面。溢出物沉积了约540万立方码的粉煤灰污泥，并以预期的清理销毁或破坏26户房屋的周围环境耗资10亿美元（2）。燃煤电厂的燃烧副产品的壮观危害较小 功率生成点源类别：最终详细报告： 据估计，目前在废水排放中释放出在废水排放中释放的有毒污染物的总量估计很重要，并且对暴露于这些污染物的水生生物，野生动植物和人类健康的长期影响引起了人们的担忧。 3）即使EPA尚未将煤灰归类为危险废物，但他们正在将自己的危险废物标准应用于全面的环境响应，赔偿和责任法（CERCLA）（CERCLA）现在被用作煤炭事件的指导标准 - 此外，EPA 确定在美国，至少有44个其他占有池塘对附近的社区造成了“高危害”（4）。 由于存储在储存池塘中的煤灰污泥并不容易成为空降，因此不会对工人造成严重的健康风险。但是，发电工人可以接触到可能成为发电设施中空降的干煤灰。煤炭燃烧副产品逃脱了缺少洗涤塔的锅炉。对于正面流动锅炉的情况，煤灰灰尘通过锅炉的孔逸出并覆盖 锅炉周围的一切。这种干煤灰尘通常含有无机砷，六价铬，汞和铅。干燥后，这种灰尘会通过吸入或摄入来污染工人，从而导致慢性健康问题暴露于工人。 公用事业工人通过各种场所暴露于危险物质。像工业工人一样，他们可能会接触到在制造过程中现场使用的各种危险化学物质（制造电力，净化饮用水）。像建筑工人一样，他们可能会在挖掘/挖沟操作中接触到被污染的土壤，以安装，维护或修复管道或线条。喜欢 服务人员必须前往工业环境或其他潜在的危险站点，以安装，维护或维修分发产品的设备。最后，像紧急响应工人一样，他们是对自然，人造或意外灾难进行修复和重新建立公用事业服务的第一响应者。 培训的理由：公用事业工人可以在发电厂的现场接触危险的废物；在传输，分销或收集系统中的异地，为工业和危险废物站点提供服务；或响应公用事业损失服务紧急情况。现场，大量有害化学物质的储罐可能会泄漏并将工人暴露于毒素中。此外，运输化学物质以处理水的管道或阀门 在维护和/或维修期间，发电或水的净化可能会泄漏并将工人暴露于危险化学物质中，包括不兼容的化学物质。危险废物存储在许多一代工厂中，包括花费的核燃料棒或泥浆池，这些核棒或泥浆池中含有清洗锅中的化学残留物，锅炉吹动，金属清洁废水和其他冷却水以及煤炭燃烧的副产品。 异地，在维护或修理地下管道或线路时，工人会暴露于未知的污染物中。它们可以在挖掘过程中从土壤中的毒素中暴露于毒素，也可以在下水道工人的情况下暴露于生产线中的有毒工业废物或医疗废物。最后，公用事业工人是对紧急情况的第一响应者。他们在本地以及全国各地应对紧急情况 通过相互援助协定（MPA），预先安排的地理区域将公用事业工人在最令人讨厌和最危险的条件下修复各种公用事业服务中断。取决于紧急情况，无论是自然还是人造，公用事业服务中断，高度危险的化学，石化，炼油或其他工业地点，以及危险的废物清理地点，都需要公用事业工人 他们作为急救人员的角色，在恢复公用事业服务时面对各种危害。 公用事业行业的劳动力也处于不断变化状态，这带来了不同的危害。由于以前的放松管制和重组，该行业正在经历前所未有的变化。除了多年来没有将新工人添加到劳动力中的几年中，我们现在还遇到了老龄化劳动力的危机。 “能源公用事业员工的平均年龄正在稳步上升； 自1995年以来，55岁及以上的行业工人人数增加了225％。”（5）这是一个主要结果是主要是通过退休和流失而失去经验丰富的工人，而随之而来的是，失去了工作场所健康机构记忆的丧失和安全。可以预测，这种损失将继续并加速，估计在接下来的4至8年中，劳动力的退休时间为50％（6）。提供必不可少的服务，例如电网基础设施维护，电源分配，污水回收和处理，气体分布以及水的净化和分配。 现在，培训对于提供安全健康的工作场所至关重要。这就是为什么UWUA建立了Power4America与管理层合作，以开始确保这些关键年份必要的培训资源的过程。此外，我们正在与社区联系，以期待这一需求，并将为潜在工人进行外展健康和安全培训。 这项培训将有助于这些社区成员在这些设施的雇用后准备在这些设施中安全工作。我们将招聘工作集中在赠款第一年中代表NRC设施的社区服务不足的成员上。如果资助，我们将在未来的赠款年份将此培训扩展到全国其他设施。 UWUA的成员占据了各种职位，这些职位组成了公用事业行业，包括电工，力学，蒸汽运营商，地下维护工人，高架线工人，核电运营商（以及其他核电分类），变压器人员，画家和办公室人员。 UWUA成员需要培训，因为由于暴露于危险物质，他们的工作环境暴露于事故和伤害。根据工作的性质，公用事业工人必须在整个服务区域（包括废物处理或工业站点）进行维护和修复公用事业线。水，污水和电气传输和分配工人必须准备好以自己的公用事业或通过MPA响应紧急情况，或者通过自然灾害引起的另一个地方的紧急情况， 恐怖事件或意外灾难。无论是现场，异地还是在紧急情况下，急性或慢性损伤以及与清理危险物质释放相关的疾病，或意外释放出耗时燃料棒或有毒的机载煤灰废物的辐射，可能会长期损害其健康状况以及周围社区的。 需求：我们的基础设施处于遗憾的状态并不是什么秘密。据估计，需要数千亿美元来重建我们的电力线，我们的水管和燃气管道。同时，公用事业工人从事反应性维护：他们必须处理数千个水主休斯，倒下的电力线和汽油线维修，尤其是在冬季。处理巨大的天气紧急情况 飓风，龙卷风和冬季风暴，公用事业经常在相互援助系统中互相借来。 这是非常困难和混乱的过程，但是在大多数情况下，它一直使我们的电力，水和天然气为公众和行业提供。正是在这些紧急回应期间，公用事业工人与危险情况接触，具体取决于他们的紧急情况。 《纽约时报》记者詹姆斯·巴伦（James Barron）对公用事业工人在 描述由附近水主断裂引起的地下蒸汽管爆炸。在这次爆炸中，两名公用事业工人和一名行人被杀，另外24名受伤。 “那里是一个丛林。在曼哈顿23平方英里的下方是1100万英里的电话线，电缆19,000英里， 6,000英里的水管，4,000英里的燃气管线，100英里的有线电视电线和105英里的蒸汽管。”（7）