“Class follows all OSHA requirements”
Oil spill clean up: one woman says she was ripped off, FOX Channel 4 (Ft. Myers, FL):
Heidi Deal… went to the Ostego Bay Foundation [under U.S. Coast Guard jurisdiction] and signed up for a four hour, $25 certification class. She hoped to leave ready to help out if the oil ever reaches our shores.
She got a certificate at the end of the class. “It says I’m certified for first response emergency clean up,” she told me. …
“Not at all. Not safely,” she answered. Heidi says her teacher played four videos on the environment and passed out a few pamphlets. That’s it.
“I feel like they shouldn’t leave with a certificate saying they can go clean up oil and not be prepared and be exposed to these substances,” she said.
From the Ostego Bay Oil Spill Co-op webpage:
In 1991, to help prevent such a catastrophe, the state of Florida began requiring local communities to either maintain first-response capabilities themselves or contract with outside experts to provide those first response services.
The Ostego Bay Environmental Response Co-op was created in 1992 to meet those state requirements. The all-volunteer group, consisting primarily of local marinas and commercial fishermen, is licensed and inspected by the state and operates under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Coast Guard.
