OSHA Offers Basic Workplace Safety, Health Training Course in Spanish Beginning May 24 in Chicago

Training in basic workplace safety and health will soon be offered in Spanish through a project co-sponsored by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and participating state agencies and universities in the Chicago area, the U.S. Labor Department announced.

“This is a significant opportunity for employers who discover that portions of their workforce might respond better to instruction provided in Spanish,” said Gary Anderson, OSHA area director in Calumet City. “It matters because we need to leave no stone unturned in combating the problem of workplace injuries among Hispanic workers.” Anderson noted that while injury and illness rates in the private sector dropped by over one-third in the decade between 1992 and 2001, the rates increased for Hispanic workers.

The training is a Spanish-language version of OSHA’s successful ten hour general industry course, and will be offered beginning on May 24-25 and Aug. 2-3, 2005. The two day course in May will be held at the UIC School of Public Health, 2121 West Taylor Street, Chicago.

The course will cover a variety of safety and health instruction, including: an introduction to OSHA; walking, working surfaces; means of egress and fire protection, electrical safety and personal protective equipment; machine safeguarding; lockout/tagout issues; introduction to industrial hygiene; blood borne pathogens; confined space hazards and many others.

Cooperating with OSHA in offering the training are: the National Safety Education Center at Northern Illinois University; the Great Lakes NIOSH Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago; Harry S. Truman College of Chicago; and, the On-Site Safety and Health Consultation Program of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Security.