Session: Health Equity and Prevention through Workforce Health and Safety Training: The Niehs Worker Training Program (Society for Prevention Research 24th Annual Meeting)

The National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) administers the Worker Training Program (WTP). The WTP awards grants to train workers engaged in activities related to hazardous materials and waste generation, removal, containment, transportation, and emergency response. The WTP prevents work-related harm by training workers in how best to protect themselves and their communities from exposure to hazardous materials encountered during hazardous waste operations, hazardous materials transportation, environmental restoration, or chemical emergency response, and to undertake brownfields, construction, and environmental workforce development training for disadvantaged communities.

This panel will present training programs and evaluation findings done across the country by WTP grantees, demonstrating how the program reaches into communities and helps them be safe and healthy places to live and work. Presenters will describe how the program works with vulnerable, disadvantaged populations who often bear the brunt of environmental workplace and community concerns. For example, WTP grantees provide training to workers to safely clean contaminated Superfund sites, work at nuclear power plants, and engage in asbestos abatement. The papers will discuss the engagement and empowerment of workers in creating a healthier and safer workplace, acknowledging the importance of giving a voice to those affected by health disparities and workplace hazards. 

Several specific components of the WTP will be covered by different panel members. The first paper will discuss the emergency response component of the WTP, which supports the development and delivery of disaster-specific training to prepare workers to respond to natural disasters and possible future terrorist incidents and biosafety hazards. A training and subsequent evaluation results on the mental health of responders and workers will be highlighted, knowing the stress involved in disaster response and recovery work. The second paper will cover work being done to assess occupational hazards and training gaps for Spanish-speaking workers in the Detroit area, and how training will be planned based on this assessment. The next three papers will focus on the WTP’s Environmental Career Worker Training Program (ECWTP), from the national, academic grantee, and community perspective. The ECWTP trains disadvantaged and underrepresented workers for health and safety job skills while also providing life skills and to promote enhanced economic benefits to individuals and communities. The final paper will look at the WTP from the workplace managers’ perspective, discussing an assessment of managers’ perceptions about and impetus for sending workers to health and safety trainings.