Harwood Targeted Grants for Green Jobs, MSDs, Nano, More
Sixteen organizations receive $2.75 million in one-year grants to develop training materials about nanomaterials, work zone safety, green roofing jobs, beryllium, and several others.
OSHA awarded $2.75 million in one-year Susan Harwood Targeted Topic Training Grants this week to 16 organizations for training on a variety of topics, from nanotechnology to green jobs, work zone safety, confined spaces, fall protection, beryllium, and landscaping and tree service. This follows $8 million OSHA awarded Sept. 9 to 45 organizations in Susan Harwood Capacity Building Grants.
"This grant program is a crucial component to our efforts to provide workers with training about job hazards and their rights. It also provides employers with information about unsafe working conditions and their responsibilities under the law," Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said.
The grant program is named in honor of a director of the Office of Risk Assessment in OSHA's health standards directorate who died in 1996.
The largest grant among the targeted ones, $236,000 to Houston's Rice University, will allow the school to develop materials and training modules about safe handling of nanomaterials for workers in small to medium-sized chemical companies that manufacture or process those materials. With the smallest grant, $29,755, Roofers and Waterproofers Research and Education Joint Trust will produce training and materials in English and Spanish about hazards encountered in green roofing projects. IAFF, the International Association of Fire Fighters, received $220,000 to develop a chemical process industry emergency response training program for small fire departments.