During the 1970s and 1980s, a hazardous waste management industry emerged in the U.S., driven by government and polluting industry responses to a hazardous waste crisis. In 1979, labor unions began to seek federal health and safety protections for workers in that industry and for firefighters responding to hazardous materials fires. Those efforts led to a worker health and safety section in the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986. The legislation mandated regulation of hazardous waste operations and emergency response worker protection, and establishment of a national health and safety training grant program - which became the Worker Education and Training Program (WETP).Craig Slatin provides a history of labor's success on the coattails of the environmental movement and in the middle of a rightward shift in American politics. He explores how the WETP established a national worker training effort across industrial sectors, with case studies on the health and safety training programs of two unions in the WETP - the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers and the Laborers' Union. Lessons can be learned from one of the last major worker health and safety/environmental protection victories of the 1960s-1980s reform era, coming at the end of the golden age of regulation and just before the new era of deregulation and market dominance. Slatin's analysis calls for a critical survey of the social and political tasks facing those concerned about worker and community health and environmental protection in order to make a transition toward just and sustainable production.

Examines risks workers might face in cleaning up contamination at the Nuclear Weapons Complex. Evaluates the effectiveness of the Energy Dept's. occupational safety and health programs for cleanup workers. Photos.

Hazardous Waste Compliance concentrates on government regulations as they relate to hazardous waste and other hazardous materials. The main focus of this book is on how to comply with these requirements as well as on other best management practices (BMP), which will ensure worker safety and business protection from the risk of the commercial penalties associated with regulations breaches. The authors provide the reader with useful techniques to enhance worker protection and promote efficiency, productivity and cost effectiveness, along with achieving the necessary quality standards for the work being performed. The authors further outline and define methods to help reduce worker injury and illness, the scope and application of HAZWOPER, and ways to implement hazardous material related requirements through enhancements of existing programs. In addition, detailed discussion helps to provide methods to help promote consistency in health and safety program development for handling hazardous materials, encourage a high standard for health and safety, and share lessons learned to help provide approaches that have been implemented on hazardous waste and other sites. - Provides a comprehensive overview of regulatory requirements in the industry - Real-life experiences are presented in the form of case histories - A training aid for both new and experienced site workers