TEEX is joining the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center of Texas A&M Engineering to train employees in companies at risk for dust explosions. TEEX’s Professional & Regulatory Training division has received a Susan Harwood grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to train 325 employees from the five-state region covered by its OSHA Southwest Education Center.

“Several dust explosions throughout the country, including the explosion at the Dixie Crystals sugar refinery in Georgia, led OSHA to identify this as a target area for training,” said David Hutchison of TEEX Professional & Regulatory Training. He said a wide range of industries and operations that generate fine particles of dust are at risk for dust explosions, including paper, wood and pulp mills, chemical and food processing, fertilizer plants, plastic manufacturing, and others.

The grant will fund 19 classes across OSHA Region VI, which includes Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico. TEEX will offer courses in “Process Safety Management (PSM) Survival,” “PSM Auditor” and a new course in “Combustible Dust Explosion Hazard Awareness.” The Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center will offer a course in “Dust Explosion Behavior.”

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