Lawrence, UMass Lowell partner
for $2.7 Million Worker Safety Program
The City of Lawrence and UMass
Lowell officials last month announced
$2.7 million in federal funding has been
received to launch a new program to
prevent workplace injuries and dangerous
exposure to silica among Hispanic
workers.
More than 900 Hispanic workers died last
year on the job in the United States.
While 12 percent of the total workforce
is Hispanic, workers from that ethnic
group accounted for 16 percent of
on-the-job deaths, according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The new program, Protección en
Construcción: Lawrence Latino Safety
Partnership, is a joint effort of the
Mayor’s Health Task Force, UMass
Lowell, JSI Research and Training
Institute Inc. of Boston and Laborers
Union Local 175, which has more than 600
members locally.
Paul Marion, executive director of
Outreach, represented UMass Lowell
Chancellor Marty Meehan at yesterday’s
announcement and highlighted the project
as an example of UML’s commitment to
the Lawrence community. “We have a
responsibility to this whole section of
Massachusetts,” said Marion.
“The University is very proud to be
a part of the project, Protección en
Construcción: Lawrence Latino Safety
Partnership, which will develop
prevention strategies to decrease
injuries and illness in Latino workers in
Lawrence,” said Prof. Rafael
Moure-Eraso, chair of UMass Lowell’s
Department of Work Environment.
One in four workers fatally injured at
work in 2005 was born outside the United
States. Falls are among the most common
causes of workplace deaths among
construction workers, and more than 20
percent of those who were killed in such
accidents were Hispanic. Last year, a
Lawrence man was killed when he fell from
scaffolding at a construction site in
Easton.
“The results of falls are tragic,”
said Prof. Lenore Azaroff of UMass Lowell’s
Department of Work and Environment, who
applied for the funding from NIOSH for
the partnership. “This project will
address this human suffering.”
The $2.7 million in research funds
a-warded to UMass Lowell for the
partner-ship came from the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH), a program of the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention dedi-cated to researching the
prevention of workplace injuries, illness
and fatalities. One of NIOSH’s
research areas is pre-venting falls, the
second leading cause of workplace deaths
after motor vehicle crashes. Exposure to
silica dust from grinding or cutting
concrete is a major cause of potentially
deadly conditions in-cluding silicosis,
lung cancer, pulmonary tuberculosis and
diseases of the airways.
“It’s great that NIOSH
recognized the issue and chose to fund
the terrific partnership that has
developed between the partners, including
the city of Lawrence and UMass Lowell,”
said June Black, regional coordinator for
U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, who represents
the Fifth Congressional District,
including Lawrence and Lowell.
The research and training conducted in
Lawrence will be used as a national model
for worker safety programs elsewhere
around the country.
“As mayor, I am supportive of the
Proteccion en Construccion project with
our partners at UMass Lowell. This
project is the first of its kind in the
nation; I know we will have great
success,” said Lawrence Mayor
Michael J. Sullivan.
“Latino workers are the fastest
growing percentage of construction
workers,” said Michael Gagliardi,
business manager for Laborers Local 175.
“It is our hope the research we
conduct will become a national model to
ensure Latino workers are safe in the
workplace.”
UMass Lowell, with a national reputation
in science, engineering and technology,
is committed to educating students for
lifelong success in a diverse world and
conducting research and outreach
activities that sustain the economic,
environmental and social health. UML
offers its 11,000 students more than 120
degree choices, internships, five-year
combined bachelor’s to master’s
programs and doctoral studies in the
colleges of Arts and Sciences,
Engineering and Management, the School of
Health and Environment, and the Graduate
School of Education. www.uml.edu.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
All
pictures and material are
(C) copyright, Valley Patriot, Inc., 2008
|
