Training Matters: Guidelines for Safety and Productivity

Part 1: OSHA Standard Requires Annual Hazmat Training

Part 2: Lockout-Tagout Training Reduces Injury Risk

Part 3: Electrical Training Prevents Fire, Shock and Electrocution

Part 4: How To Safeguard Workers From Falls

Part 5: Identifying Confined Spaces Minimizes Potential Hazards

Part 6: Managers Need to Raise Asbestos Awareness

Part 7: Safety-Training Issues Require Written Compliance

Part 8: Training Areas Include Ergonomics and IAQ

Managers Need to Raise Asbestos Awareness

By Jeffery C. Camplin, - November 2008 - Material Handling

Workers can come into contact with asbestos insulation on HVAC and electrical equipment or when adjacent building materials contain asbestos. OSHA standards 1910.1001 and 1926.1101 require awareness training for employees who work in areas of buildings with asbestos-containing materials.

This training is mandatory for workers who perform maintenance activities in buildings constructed before 1981 unless a comprehensive asbestos inspection failed to find asbestos. Basic training on asbestos awareness should cover:

• methods of recognizing asbestos, including the requirement to presume certain materials contain asbestos

• the health effects associated with asbestos exposure

• instruction in recognizing damage, deterioration, and delamination of asbestos-containing building materials.

Employees who might come into contact and disturb asbestos-containing materials require an additional 14 hours of training. This training includes the previously discussed elements, as well as:

• the nature of operations that could result in exposure to asbestos

• the importance of protective controls to minimize exposure, including engineering controls, work practices, respirators, housekeeping procedures, protective clothing, decontamination procedures, emergency procedures, and waste-disposal procedures, along with instruction in using these controls and procedures

• hands-on training.

Comments

BlakeTrent wrote re: Managers Need to Raise Asbestos Awareness
on 2/14/2012 1:58:06 PM

This is a great step in finally ridding ourselves of the toxic chemical! But we also need to go after those who supply it. Asbestos is still a huge global business because developing countries still import and use it in construction! Which seems to me somewhat immoral business practices to sell developing countries chemicals we know as toxic.