ATN Assists 3M with Emergency Response Training

3M, located in Guin, Alabama, has been a mainstay in the Marion County community since 1955. What began as a cotton field and an initial building of 75,000 square feet is now a major manufacturing facility of over 500,000 square feet with over 300 employees. Their facility is part of 3M’s Traffic Safety and Security Division where they manufacture reflective road signs and pavement marking materials that are sold around the world. About 40% of the products made in Guin are exported to other countries. Reflective products are also manufactured for the Commercial Solutions Division for advertising on trucks & trailers and for improved visibility of emergency response vehicles. The Advanced Materials Division manufactures glass bubbles, a lightweight filler material for many markets, and ceramic microspheres, a filler material in paints and coatings.

3M Guin has on-site emergency response personnel that requires them to have an annual Refresher for Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) and Confined Space Rescue. Since 2003, ATN has assisted 3M Guin with miscellaneous projects including Internal Auditing of their ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 management systems as well as HAZWOPER Refresher training.

ATN provided an on-site 8-hour HAZWOPER Refresher training to select members of the 3M Guin emergency response team. This training was customized to incorporate emergency response with confined space rescue. For this refresher, the ATN Hazmat trailer was transported to the 3M Guin site in order to involve participants in hands-on using our emergency response equipment. This combination of lecture with hands-on activities provided an effective, and meaningful, learning environment to recreate real-life emergency response scenarios. The training was well received by participants and prepared them for actual emergencies that could occur on the 3M Guin site involving chemical releases, confined spaces and protecting life safety.