Oregon OSHA Provides Forester, Fire, and Construction Training Grants
The City of Bend Fire Department is getting a $30,710 grant to launch a training project designed to reduce injuries and claims costs among firefighters by improving the efficiency of their physical movements and their flexibility and core strength.
The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division (Oregon OSHA) announced this week it has awarded three grants totaling more than $92,000 to help develop workplace safety and health education and training programs for forest workers, firefighters, and construction workers.
The Northwest Forest Worker Center is getting a $40,000 grant to develop training materials to prevent "struck by object" accidents among forest workers in southern Oregon. A nonprofit group, it will develop training materials to reduce the risks to forest workers in Jackson and Josephine counties of getting struck by a falling tree or branch. Being struck by such objects is the leading cause of injury among workers in the forest services industry in Oregon, according to the agency.
These training materials will be videos in Spanish and English to explain best practices for preventing injuries, legally required safety precautions, and workers' rights to a safe workplace.
The City of Bend Fire Department is getting a $30,710 grant to launch a training project designed to reduce injuries and claims costs among firefighters by improving the efficiency of their physical movements and their flexibility and core strength. Although the fire department has a robust fitness and wellness program, there has been no systematic measurement of movement efficiency, flexibility, and core strength as they relate to specific movements for required tasks, according to Oregon OSHA, and the training project will include development of therapeutic exercise prescriptions based on the results of a job-specific movement analysis, with the program's effectiveness to be measured through declining injury rates, claims costs, and lost time.
The third grant, $21,882.50, is going to the nonprofit SafeBuild Alliance to create a training and information program that identifies and communicates the best methods of integrating lean principles with safe work procedures for the construction industry. The program will pinpoint the best methods of blending these and delivering training based on the methods. The program’s success will be judged through surveys of those who receive training and a satisfaction survey of the companies that receive best-method analyses.