Volume 31 Number 31 Thursday, August 2, 2001	Page 714
ISSN 1522-4082
News
Hazard Communication Planning Begins for 2002 Hispanic Forum; Safety Council to Seek Designated Funding

The NSC is seeking $100,000 from the Labor Department and another $250,000 through the Environmental Protection Agency budget, which would help fund the forum and pay travel expenses for members of non-profit community groups to enable them to attend the forum to be held in October 2002 in San Diego, Briggs said.

The NSC has approached members of the congressional committees that fund the Labor Department and EPA about adding the money, which would then pass through to NSC in the form of a contract or grant, Briggs said.

Briggs spoke at a strategy session for the Second Hispanic Forum on a Safe and Healthy Environment, being planned in conjunction with the NSC's annual Congress and Expo.

The session was held to begin the planning process for the next forum by identifying content areas, and recruiting team leaders. Additional strategy sessions will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Atlanta, and El Paso, Texas, in the coming months, he said.

The first national forum was held in October 2000 in Orlando, Fla., and was sponsored by the NSC, the Pan American Health Organization, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Alliance for Hispanic Health and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

As far as OSHA's involvement with the next forum, "They have not committed to anything for 2002," Briggs said.

"We had very little available in Spanish," he said

An increasing number of the group's documents are available in Spanish and the NSC is doing more outreach to underserved populations, he said.

At this year's NSC Conference and Expo in Atlanta in September, the council will feature sessions in Spanish including prevention of accidents, illness, and disease in the workplace and a class on incident investigation techniques, Briggs said.