2007 - 10/04/2007 - U.S. Labor Department awards $10.1 million for safety and health training grants, including $432,127 to University of Puerto Rico

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OSHA News Release
2007 - 10/04/2007 - U.S. Labor Department awards $10.1 million for safety and health training grants, including $432,127 to University of Puerto Rico

OSHA News Release - Table of Contents

Region 2 News Release: 07-1486-NAT/BOS 2007-277
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Contact: Sharon Worthy David Sims
Phone: (202) 693-4676 (202) 693-1898

U.S. Labor Department awards $10.1 million for safety and health training grants, including $432,127 to University of Puerto Rico

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has awarded more than $10.1 million in Susan Harwood Training Grants to 55 nonprofit organizations, including the University of Puerto Rico, for safety and health training and educational programs.

"Outreach and education are at the heart of our compliance assistance efforts for employers and employees," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Edwin G. Foulke Jr. "The Harwood grants will help OSHA expand its educational resources to protect working men and women."

The Susan Harwood Grants support workplace safety programs and the development of training materials to educate employees in high-hazard industries, those with limited English proficiency, those who are hard-to-reach and those in industries with high fatality rates, as well as small business employers.

The grants support training programs to educate employees on targeted topics such as construction hazards; general industry hazards; and other safety and health topic areas including pandemic flu and driver safety.

In Puerto Rico, two campuses of the University of Puerto Rico will receive a total of $432,127:

The Medical Sciences Campus will receive $239,981 to develop training modules addressing the four major construction hazards (falls electrocution, struck-by and caught-in injuries), ergonomics, noise and air contaminants. Training will reach approximately 1,350 construction employees in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Florida.
The Rio Piedras Campus will receive $192,146 to develop a bilingual awareness course on food processing hazards for approximately 615 individuals throughout Puerto Rico. Training materials will be available in both English and Spanish and will include a train-the-trainer program.

The training grants are named in honor of the late Susan Harwood, a former director of the Office of Risk Assessment in OSHA's health standards directorate, who died in 1996. During her 17-year tenure with the agency, Harwood helped develop OSHA standards to protect employees exposed to bloodborne pathogens, cotton dust, benzene, formaldehyde, asbestos and lead in construction.

Editor's Note: A complete list of the 2007 Susan Harwood Grant recipients is posted at www.osha.gov/dcsp/ote/sharwood.html. Public inquiries should be directed to Cindy Bencheck at (847) 759-7726.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to assure the safety and health of America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards; providing training, outreach and education; establishing partnerships; and encouraging continual process improvement in workplace safety and health. For more information, visit www.osha.gov.

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U.S. Department of Labor releases are accessible on the Internet at www.dol.gov. The information in this news release will be made available in alternate format upon request (large print, Braille, audio tape or disc) from the COAST office. Please specify which news release when placing your request. Call (202) 693-7765 or TTY (202) 693-7755. DOL is committed to providing America's employers and employees with easy access to understandable information on how to comply with its laws and regulations. For more information, please visit www.dol.gov/compliance.

OSHA News Release - Table of Contents


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