University of California Los Angeles
Labor Occupational Safety & Health Program
Box 951478
Los Angeles, California 90095-1478 http://www.losh.ucla.edu(http://www.losh.ucla.edu)
University of California Davis Extension
1333 Research Park Drive #251
Davis, California 95616-4852
Target Training Populations
The Consortium targets superfund site workers, state and county emergency response personnel,
hazardous waste and hazardous materials transportation personnel, and waste site assessment
workers. Reaching underserved workers is an emphasis of the Consortium; WRUC members
collaborate with community-based and tribal organizations to provide training for underrepresented minorities, for populations in the Southwest, Hawaii, Alaska, U.S. affiliated islands and for
those along the U.S. - Mexican border. We are also expanding to target frontline workers at
west coast ports.
Program Description
The Consortium consists of five university-based programs. Consortium members collaborate with a
variety of organizations to provide health and safety training for workers who handle hazardous
waste and hazardous materials in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region IX (California,
Arizona, Nevada and the Pacific Islands) and EPA Region X (Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska).
The Western Region Universities Consortium (WRUC) offers a full range of Hazardous Waste Operations and
Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) courses including: hazardous waste cleanup and investigation,
supervisor and refresher courses; treatment, storage and disposal (TSD) facility and refresher
courses; first responder awareness operations, HazMat Technician and Incident Commander, and refresher courses
;Department of Transportation (DOT) and refresher courses; confined space courses; and hazard
awareness courses. The Consortium also provides train-the-trainer courses for maquiladora workers
and for NIEHS trainers from other programs and participates in organizing national trainers'
exchanges. Many courses can be provided in either English or Spanish.
In addition to training, other key objectives of the program include:
Increase access to hazardous waste and hazardous materials training for workers and
supervisors who are non-English speaking and/or have limited literacy skills through innovative
outreach efforts, provision of multilingual and limited literacy materials, and targeted training;
Train community-based environmental organizations to monitor hazardous waste site
assessment and cleanup operations at hazardous waste sites in their communities;
Expand outreach and training programs in collaboration with community based and tribal
organizations to reach underrepresented minorities who handle hazardous waste/materials at sites throughout
the Southwest, in the U.S. affiliated islands and Alaska, and along the Mexican border.
Partner with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) to implement a new
West Coast Ports Worker Training Initiative, expanding the scope and target population of
the WRUC by adapting existing NIEHS curricula to address hazmat and security concerns facing
frontline workers at ports which rank among the largest in the world.