Hazardous Waste Worker Training Program (HWWTP)

危险废物工人培训计划（HWWTP）

基本信息

批准号：
8520307
负责人：
john Dennis devlin
金额：
$ 30.3万
依托单位：
UTILITY WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
至
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8520307
关键词：
Accidents Air Pollution Americas Arsenic Asbestos Attention Breathing Cadmium Categories Chronic Coal Communities Deposition Disasters Dust Educational Curriculum Electricity Emergency Situation Environmental sludge Equipment Exposure to Financial compensation Fossil Fuels Funding Gases Generations Grant Hazardous Chemicals Hazardous Substances Hazardous Waste Health Heavy Metals Home environment Human Industry Ingestion Injury Institutes Island Joints Lead Mercury Names National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Nonprofit Organizations Nuclear Oils Plants Polychlorinated Biphenyls Population Potassium Permanganate Power Plants Radiation Reporting Research Infrastructure Risk Rivers Safety Secure Services Site Soil Source Steam Sulfuric Acids Tennessee Toxin Training Training Programs Trust U-Series Cooperative Agreements United States United States Virgin Islands Water Pollution Work Workplace aquatic organism chlorine gas chromium hexavalent ion cost drinking water emergency service responder fly ash hazard man manufacturing process meetings member occupational hazard operation pollutant prevent repaired response stem transmission process water treatment

项目摘要

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.

公用事业行业构成了我们能源基础设施的核心。公众依赖其服务，并理所当然地认为电力始终在流动。但这项服务也带来了一些公共和职业危害。工人因接触辐射、氯气、多氯联苯污染的油、硫酸或高锰酸钾的溢出或泄漏而遭受疾病和伤害。其他危险包括：触电、挖掘过程中的塌陷、石棉、汞、砷、铅、镉和其他重金属等等。我们在日常生活中看到 UWUA 成员在工作，但他们的工作危险却被忽视。同样，工业造成的公共危害，如空气和水污染以及灾难性的毒素释放，通常被视为日常情况，直到发生一场戏剧性的事故，吸引我们的注意。关注公用事业行业，例如三哩岛。通常，工人培训是预防或阻止工作场所或公众危险的第一道也是唯一的防线。有时，这些看不见的危险会突然出现在人们的视野中，就像田纳西州金斯敦煤灰泄漏事件中发生的那样。此次泄漏事故将约 540 万立方码的飞灰污泥沉积到埃默里河及其周边地区，摧毁或损坏了 26 栋房屋，预计清理费用为 10 亿美元 (2)。美国环保署蒸汽电力报告中燃煤发电厂燃烧副产品的危害并不那么严重发电点源类别：最终详细报告：据估计，目前燃煤电厂废水排放中释放的有毒污染物总量相当大，这引起了人们对暴露于这些污染物的水生生物、野生动物和人类健康的长期影响的担忧。”( 3）尽管美国环保局尚未将煤灰归类为危险废物，但他们正在对其应用自己的危险废物标准，《综合环境响应、补偿和责任法案》（CERCLA）现已用作煤炭事故清洁的指导标准。 -UPS。此外，美国环保局 (EPA) 确定美国各地至少有 44 个其他蓄水池对附近社区构成“高度危险”(4)。由于储存池中储存的粉煤灰污泥不易传播到空气中，因此不会对工人造成严重的健康风险。然而，发电工人可能会接触到发电设施中可能通过空气传播的干煤灰。煤炭燃烧副产品会从缺乏洗涤器的锅炉中逸出。在正流锅炉的情况下，煤灰粉尘通过锅炉和盖子上的孔逸出锅炉周围的一切。这种干燥的煤灰粉尘通常含有无机砷、六价铬、汞和铅。当干燥时，这些灰尘会通过吸入或摄入而污染工人，给接触的工人造成慢性健康问题。公用事业工人通过各种场所接触有害物质。与产业工人一样，他们可能会接触到制造过程（发电、净化饮用水）现场使用的各种危险化学品。与建筑工人一样，他们在安装、维护或修理管道或线路的挖掘/挖沟作业期间可能会接触受污染的土壤。喜欢服务人员必须前往工业场所或其他潜在危险场所安装、维护或修理分发产品的设备。最后，与应急响应人员一样，他们是自然、人为或意外灾害的第一响应者，负责修复和重建公用事业服务。