PREVENTION THROUGH DESIGN

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Making Green Jobs Safe Workshop

In December 2009, 170 representatives from the occupational safety and health and environ¬mental communities within industry, labor, academia, government agencies, and nongovernment organizations met to consider how to emphasize that green jobs should be safe and healthy for workers.

The most discussed aspects of green jobs are (1) the need for increased awareness by employers about how their economic activity touches or utilizes environmental resources, (2) the subsequent need to mitigate these negative environmental impacts, and (3) the need to communicate this infor-mation to workers and consumers. The purpose of this workshop was to develop a framework and plan for adding to this discussion specifically how to make green jobs safe and demonstrating that occupational safety and health and environmental protection are overlapping and equally laudable and achievable goals.