Safety & Environmental Training
Western States Environmental, Inc.
Western States Environmental, Inc. brings extensive experience and complete training resources to satisfy virtually any safety, environmental, or hazardous material transportation training need. Our staff has conducted hundreds of training sessions for large and small companies, as well as seminars, for thousands of people throughout the western United States, in every aspect of safety and environmental compliance. See more about our training.
We also now have a training center at our headquarters in Auburn, Washington. We will be holding regularly-scheduled classes in the following:
Confined Space Entry
HAZWOPER
(8-hour refresher, 40-hour certification)
Hazardous
Waste Management for the Generator
Hazardous Materials Transportation:
Shipping
Hazardous Waste – A “Generator’s” Course
Transportation
of Hazardous Materials
Safety-Related Training Programs:
Hazard Communication
A thorough, yet common sense review of OSHA’s Hazard Communication standard, designed to ensure that your employees understand the fundamentals – MSDS, labeling, and training – while having the hands-on knowledge they will need to keep you in compliance. Every trainee will know the three required things that have to be on each label, how to fill out an HMIS/NFPA label, and how to locate, read, and more importantly understand an MSDS.
Respiratory Protection
We cover the things that a person using a respirator MUST know: when and why are respirators needed, things you can do that will help you avoid having to use them in the first place, how to understand their limitations, how to conduct a proper user-seal fit test, and how to properly clean, maintain, and store them. We take respirator training seriously, and understand that for persons exposed to hazardous atmospheres they can be a life-saver. However, we also understand the misconceptions that most companies and their employees have about respirators, and can help them understand the “other” side of respirators – the discomfort, distractions, and hassles that get employees in trouble and cause problems during OSHA inspections. We strive to teach employees and companies that they can often educate and engineer their way out of needing respirators (through effective engineering and administrative controls) in the first place, and help them accomplish that while meeting the highest standards for employee safety.
Forklift Safety
Forklifts are one of the most common types of vehicles in workplaces, and often a source of one of the most frequent violations that OSHA inspectors find when they visit a company. Western States Environmental, Inc. has forklift safety trainers that have hands-on, real world experience using forklifts, who also understand OSHA regulations and what inspectors are looking for. Our trainers are also bi-lingual (English/Spanish), so they can communicate effectively with almost any staff.
HAZWOPER (Hazardous Waste Operations and
Emergency Response)
What training program would be complete without HAZWOPER? We provide 8-hour refresher, 24-hour HazMat Operations/Technician, and 40-Hour classes that are designed to cover the hazards that YOUR employees face. Many companies offer “canned” 40-hour classes, but they are often designed for oil-spill response, or emergency response on land. Sure, a 40-hour oil spill response class will “technically” meet OSHA’s requirements, but what use will that be for your employees that are contracted to clean a tank at an oil refinery or pulp mill? You can be sure that when Western States Environmental, Inc. provides training to your employees, it will be on a series of topics that meet their needs, and that will help them do THEIR jobs safely.
Environmental Training Programs:
Hazardous Waste Management for the Generator
Each
of our trainers has over 14 years of direct, hands-on experience in hazardous
waste management, working both in the waste management industry, and helping
generators manage their waste properly.
We know hazardous waste, like nobody’s business! We’ll teach you not just where to ship your
waste or that you should just “trust” someone else to fill out your manifest –
we’ll properly teach YOU how to properly designate your waste, set up your
records so that an inspector will be impressed with your organization skills,
and how to handle your waste on-site in the simplest, most effective way. We can teach your employees everything they
need to know about waste segregation, how to accumulate it, how to label, manage,
and properly dispose of it, and how to keep from generating it in the first
place! Your employees will be so
organized that your facility will be the favorite stop for the hazardous waste
driver when he shows up. That’s a
guarantee (we’re serious! Call us for details).
Hazardous Materials Transportation:
Completing the essential third leg of the HazMat “Triad” is the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) regulations for transportation of hazardous materials. Understanding these complex and confusing regulations is absolutely essential if your company ships hazardous chemicals, particularly if you generate hazardous waste. All hazardous waste Generators are subject to these regulations, and you can be found out of compliance with not only DOT’s regulations, but OSHA’s and EPA’s as well if your employees that handle and ship hazardous waste are not trained.
Shipping Hazardous Waste – A “Generator’s” Course
We
offer an intensive, highly focused 8-hour class designed for
employees in the environmental industry that handle hazardous waste or
hazardous materials and prepare them for shipment. The course is particularly suitable for employees that have never
had the training before, but is also highly effective as an in-depth refresher.
The
course consists of 10 separate modules, two of which focus on a hazardous waste
generator's responsibility for on-site handling and preparation for shipment of
his/her hazardous waste. The remaining
8 modules focus on the aspects of DOT regulations that are specific to a
hazardous waste shipper's needs.
Trainees will receive copies of all course handout materials, take ten
separate written quizzes, and receive certificates upon successful completion
of the course. I generally require a
minimum 80% score to certify that a person has passed the course; otherwise I
issue a certificate of attendance.
Transportation of Hazardous Materials
Not
everyone is a hazardous waste generator, so we offer a two-day class that
covers DOT’s regulations a little more comprehensively (if you can call an
additional 8 hours “a little”), to ensure that your employees understand all
the different aspects of how to classify hazardous materials, select proper
shipping names, select proper packaging, markings and labels, and also how to
understand those quirky requirements for designating “hazardous substances” as
Reportable Quantities, or “RQ”.
MORE about Western States Environmental, Inc.’s
Training Programs:
Our training courses focus not just on what the regulations say, but more importantly on practical ways to meet your needs, achieve compliance, and improve the productivity of your staff. We can accomplish this by drawing upon our staff’s diverse experience with a variety of industries to tailor training that is of an appropriate “scale” for your operation, and sufficient complexity to meet the unique needs of each of our clients. Rather than canned presentations or videotapes, we rely instead on our knowledge of federal and state regulations, and combine it with our own experience implementing and managing safety and environmental compliance programs, and our thorough knowledge of how regulators are likely to view your company’s operations. And we do it in an interesting, informative, and interactive way, using full-color multi-media presentations, effective presentation techniques, and informative handouts.
The training we
provide is tailored to suit YOUR needs, not ours. We have the flexibility and experience to train large or small
groups, in meeting rooms, production areas or convention halls, to accommodate
one-time classes and shift workers, or to provide off-site training when
desired. Whatever your training needs
are, we can provide the right trainers, the right material, and the right level
of instruction to assure success for your staff and company.