A Brief History of Our HAZWOPER Course

Our company began operations in 1991 as a safety training company called Shelby Environmental Training, Inc. located Shelby, NC.   But we didn't just show up in North Carolina one day and decide to start a HAZMAT/Safety Training company.  Decades ago National EHS's founder had a vision. Based on things he saw on the job, some of them extremely unpleasant, he saw an opportunity where he could teach people to protect themselves, their loved ones and others from hazards posed by fires both at home and in the workplace.  Using simple methodologies and his life experience he could demonstrate how easy it really is to prevent pain and suffering and tragic loss of life with basic understanding of the properties of fire and fire prevention principles. Read his brief biography below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kevin Phillips has been training students in HAZMAT Emergency Response for over 37 years, long before it was an EPA/OSHA requirement.  Beginning in 1975, he has had a long, illustrious career serving the public in organizations that include:

• US Air Force Intelligence, Langley AFB, VA - Photo Interpretation Specialist

• Pittsfield Fire Department – Pittsfield, MA - Firefighter/EMT

• 104th Tactical Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard, Massachusetts - Firefighter/Crash Rescue

• 109th Tactical Airlift Group – NY ANG – Scotia, NY – C-130 Navigator/Rated Officer (Captain)

• Cleveland County HAZMAT Emergency Response Team, Shelby, NC - HAZMAT Technician

• Civil Air Patrol, North Carolina Wing - Search and Rescue Pilot

• Shelby Environmental Training, Shelby, NC – Safety Trainer, Consultant, Site-Safety Manager

In 1981 he began training HAZMAT teams in his local area for large companies that, due to the huge volume and nature of the chemicals they had on site, needed their own emergency responders.  In 1991 he moved to Shelby, NC and began operations in his own training company called Shelby Environmental Training, Inc.  To date he has trained over 32,000 students in all categories of safety, nearly 21,000 in HAZMAT alone.  Companies trained include:

• General Electric

• Duke Energy

• TVA

• Goodyear

• BF Goodrich

• Freightliner

• US Army, US Air Force

• Clean Harbors

• Earth Tech

• many more

Over the years he has developed a system of training that is easy to understand, follows a logical step-by-step order, covers all of the material that directly relates to workers involved in the work without the confusing overly-technical information that most courses throw at students who work “in the trenches” as he has for so many years. 

With a newly formed company, National EHS, he is now putting this training and course development experience to work focusing on training the trainers.  His HAZWOPER 40-hour Site Worker Train-the-Trainer course is the exact same course he has taught successfully for decades.  The written text book, Powerpoint slides, exercises and table-top scenarios, quizzes and tests are the same ones he has developed and continually updated since the beginning. 

His Online HAZWOPER 40-hour Site Worker course and the 8-hour Annual Refresher are now available to you online.  You will receive a Certificate of Completion at the end of each course, but more importantly, we at National EHS want to show you how we can provide your trainer with this same easy-to-follow format and all the materials needed to train every HAZMAT employee in your company from now on with the best HAZWOPER course available.  Those courses include the 40-hour Initial course, the 8-hour Annual Refresher, the 8-hour Manager/Supervisor course and soon, the HAZMAT Emergency Responder Training program.