Region 6 News Release: OSHA-09-701-DAL
Friday, July 17, 2009
Contact: Elizabeth Todd
Phone: 972-850-4710

U.S. Department of Labor's OSHA and Greater New Orleans Industrial Educational Council sign safety and health alliance agreement

SAINT ROSE, La. -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has formed an alliance with the Greater New Orleans Industrial Educational Council (GNOIEC) in Saint Rose to promote workplace safety and health for workers in the petrochemical industry.

"The alliance provides an opportunity for OSHA, members of the GNOIEC and industry contract workers with information, guidance and access to industrial education training resources to help promote safety and health," said Dorinda Folse, OSHA's area director in Baton Rouge, La. "We are hopeful that this cooperative effort will help prevent injuries, illnesses and fatalities."

OSHA and the GNOIEC will conduct ongoing outreach efforts by jointly developing materials, training programs, workshops, seminars and lectures. OSHA and GNOIEC will focus on safety and health priorities associated within the local petrochemical industry, such as fall hazards, equipment operation hazards and chemical hazard communication.

GNOIEC was formed in 1991 by owners of petrochemical processing plants and the contractors that service those installations to provide industrial education for plant personnel and contract workers along the Mississippi River Industrial Corridor and the Louisiana-Mississippi Gulf Coast.

OSHA alliances are a means for participating organizations to network with others committed to workplace safety and health, and exchange information about hazards. The agency currently has more than 470 alliances throughout the nation with organizations committed to fostering safety and health in the workplace.

Employers and employees with questions about this or other OSHA alliances or partnerships may call the agency's Baton Rouge Area Office at 225-298-5458.

OSHA has improved workplace safety and health over the past 38 years. This success is reflected in the latest data (2007) showing the lowest national injury and illness incidence rate that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has ever recorded. OSHA continues to work diligently to focus its resources where they will have the most impact in assuring that every working man and woman returns home safely every day.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, OSHA's role is to promote safe and healthful working conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, outreach and education. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.

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