The Rail Workers Hazardous Materials Training Program (www.rwhmtp.org) offers courses in hazmat awareness and response thanks to several federal grants.
Our program targets the approximately 150,000 conductors, engineers, brakemen, switchmen, carmen, signalmen, laborers, boilermakers, dispatchers, and maintenance of way workers represented by the nine rail union affiliates of this cooperative effort. Funding for this program includes grants from the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences and the Department of Transportation. Many rai
l workers do not have access to quality hazmat and/or basic safety and health training. Both FRA and OSHA share jurisdiction in regulating worker safety and health conditions on railroad property. This joint jurisdiction has generally not been integrated into employer-provided training, leaving the majority of railroaders largely untrained or undertrained to safely perform hazmat-related functions consistent with the requirements set forth by OSHA and DOT. More than 32,000 workers have participated in NIEHS-funded training courses that address requirements of OSHA 1910.120 and DOT's Hazardous Materials Regulations (49 CFR, Part 172, Subpart H). In 2008, our program received additional funding from the US Department of Transportation to conduct Hazmat Instructor Train-the-Trainer courses. We welcome your comments on our posts and encourage you to share items of interest to our community. Posts that are advertising, unrelated or contrary to the program's mission, or contain profanity or are inappropriate will be deleted. If an individual continues to post inappropriate content, we will block that user from participating on our page.
