51视频

12/17/2020
By Ed Brennen

More than 50,000 workers from fields such as manufacturing, health care and disaster response have received health and safety training from The New England Consortium (TNEC) at 51视频 over the past three decades.

This year, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the list of trainees has expanded to include people who work in grocery stores, gyms, beauty salons and even casinos.

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 necessarily consider grocery workers or delivery drivers to be essential workers, but this pandemic has obviously highlighted that what they do is essential,鈥� says听David Turcotte, a research professor in the听Economics Department听who leads TNEC, a hazardous waste and emergency response worker training institute.听

Thanks to a recent five-year, $6.6 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), TNEC will be able to continue and expand its training to workers exposed to a broad range of hazards 鈥� from toxic chemicals and infectious diseases like COVID-19 to natural disasters and workplace injuries.

鈥淏y training workers how to do their jobs safely, we鈥檙e helping save lives,鈥� says Turcotte, who became TNEC鈥檚 principal investigator in spring 2019.

TNEC will receive $1.3 million annually from the NIEHS grant, with $1.13 million earmarked for hazardous waste worker training and the remaining $194,000 for disaster preparedness training. TNEC began training workers who respond to natural disasters caused by climate change when it received its previous听five-year NIEHS grant听in 2015.

鈥淭his was a record-breaking year for hurricanes,鈥� Turcotte says. 鈥淲ith climate change, we鈥檙e seeing more natural disasters.鈥�

TNEC, which normally provides in-person training at the Wannalancit Business Center or at company sites, had to shift its resources online during the pandemic. In April, it began offering听free, two-hour virtual workshops听on COVID-19 worker safety. And when the university reopened some labs on campus, TNEC designed a one-hour online training that students, faculty, staff and industry partners must take before reentering a facility.

But the bulk of TNEC鈥檚 programs are its 40-hour hazardous worker trainings, which require in-person exercises in full, bright yellow hazmat suits. They are led by Training Manager听David Coffey听and Trainer听Patricia Strizak.

鈥淲ith COVID, we couldn鈥檛 generate that income,鈥� says Turcotte, who adds that TNEC was able to make up for some of that lost revenue, thanks to a pair of supplemental federal COVID-19 grants totaling $328,000.

In-person courses are slowly resuming, however. In November, TNEC led a two-week training for the Massachusetts State Police hazmat team at its facility in New Braintree, Massachusetts. It also held a one-day training for staff at Millipore, a life sciences company based in Burlington, Massachusetts.

And in January, TNEC plans to resume some in-person trainings at Wannalancit, offering blended learning, hybrid courses that are half on-site and half online. Turcotte says TNEC鈥檚 trainers have also developed an asynchronous two-hour training that people can fit into their work schedule. That course includes subtitles in Spanish and Portuguese 鈥� making it accessible to certain immigrant populations and other underserved groups.

鈥淲e鈥檙e focusing on expanding our reach among immigrant workers and some of the tribal entities of New England,鈥� says Turcotte, who adds that many of these populations have been hit hardest 鈥� both health-wise and economically 鈥� by the pandemic.

With its latest NIEHS grant, TNEC expects to train more than 4,000 workers annually from across New England and New York. TNEC partners with New York鈥檚 Civil Service Employees Association, as well as the Coalitions for Occupational Safety and Health of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire.

鈥淭hey all get a portion of the grant to do trainings within their states,鈥� says Turcotte, who leads a team of seven full-time TNEC employees, all members of UML鈥檚听Department of Public Health.