Rail workers engage in hazardous-material safety training

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4645

7 October 2010

ST. PAUL - Workers fully clad in hazardous-material suits descended on the St. Paul Labor Centre parking lot Sept. 29, unfurling yellow caution tape and scurrying toward pipes and barrels leaking indeterminate liquids.
Fortunately, it was only a drill.

Eighteen members of railroad unions participated in the hazardous material response drills, part of a four-day training session in St. Paul organized by the Minnesota Railroad Intercraft Association and the National Labor College (NLC).


Rail workers practice sealing a leaky barrel.
Photo by Michael Moore


Wearing plastic suits and oxygen masks, trainees engaged in one of two drills. One challenged them to plug a leaking 50-gallon barrel of “sulfuric acid” and prepare the barrel for safe shipping to a containment area.

The other exercise involved a series of pipes leaking benzene. Trainees had to figure out a way to plug the leak, prevent a fire from starting, and keep the benzene out of nearby waterways.

FULL story at link.