The International Union of Operating Engineers proposes to continue its important function as a provider of state-or-the-art hazardous waste worker health and safety training to hoisting and portable engineers (heavy equipment operators) involved in or eligible for CERCLA and other cleanup work and to stationary engineers employed or eligible for employment at RCRA treatment facilities where hazardous waste is generated, treated, stored, disposed of or transported. IUOE's specific aims are: 1. Refresh 657 instructors and train 180 new instructors; 2. Refresh 16,000 and train 13,000 hoisting and portable engineers and stationary engineers; 3. Adapt IUOE training materials for special trainings; 4. Standardize and existing curriculum by adapting training aids developed by IUOE and other NIEHS grantees; 5. Conduct a comprehensive, quantified training evaluation study. 6. Move toward self-sufficiency in hazardous waste training through increased contributions of cents-per-hour-per-worker from employers doing hazardous waste cleanup work. Increasing IUOE's role as a training provider is important to worker and public health for three reasons: 1. Reclamation and remediation performed by operating engineers using heavy equipment reduces worker contact with chemicals, reduces the number of workers exposed, and eliminates risk for the public more safely and quickly than when performed by other manual methods; 2. Thirty of 35 pieces of equipment most commonly used at hazardous waste sites are operated by H & P engineers; 3. Fifty-three percent to 78% of workers now employed on hazardous waste sites could be H & P engineers.
