Asbestos Exposure,
Management & Control
States Served:
Asbestos, asbestos training courses, Asbestos inspector training, Asbestos safety in the workplace, health effects of asbestos aspestos management & control & legal liabilities of asbestos
Asbestos, asbestos training courses, Asbestos inspector training, Asbestos safety in the workplace, health effects of asbestos aspestos management & control & legal liabilities of asbestos
Asbestos Exposure, Management & Control
Asbestos Training Course Descriptions
As an inspector, you know that it is important to understand the relationship between asbestos exposure and the potential health effects related to such exposure. You know that an understanding of this relationship can aid in protecting yourself and others during the process of performing an asbestos inspection.
This module will help to refresh your ability to recognize the evidence of health risks associated with asbestos exposure. You will also review how the respiratory system works and how the body’s natural defense mechanisms function in response to asbestos exposure.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this course, you will be able to:
- Be familiar with the early history of asbestos exposure
- Understand the health concerns associated with asbestos exposure
- Identify evidence of asbestos-related health risks
- Know the routes of entry for asbestos fibers
- Be familiar with the inner workings of the respiratory system
- Understand the human body’s natural defense mechanisms
- Be familiar with the diseases associated with asbestos exposure
Quiz Info:
None (there is a knowledge check at the end of each lesson)
Final Exam Info:
5 questions
Inspectors face liability and litigation due to the critical role they play in the asbestos management process. The inspection report is an integral part of the management plan and is the basis for all subsequent actions taken by the school.
The inspection report provides guidance for the following:
- The development of operations and maintenance strategies
- The determination of response actions
If the inspector fails to document an area of asbestos-containing material in the school or if the inspector improperly assesses the condition of the asbestos-containing material and the building owner is sued, the inspector would almost certainly become involved in asbestos litigation.
During this lesson, we will review liability issues and the basic concepts involved with insurance and bonding for professionals performing asbestos inspections.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this course, you will be able to:
- Develop an appreciation of the legal liabilities and responsibilities of professionals involved in inspecting buildings for ACM
- Understand the purpose and limitations of insurance for professionals engaged in asbestos-related work
- Understand the purpose and limitations of bonding in asbestos-related work
Quiz Info:
None (there is a knowledge check at the end of each lesson)
Final Exam Info:
5 questions
What are the health effects of asbestos exposure?
Exposure to airborne friable asbestos may result in a potential health risk because persons breathing the air may breathe in asbestos fibers. Continued exposure can increase the amount of fibers that remain in the lung. Fibers embedded in lung tissue over time may cause serious lung diseases including: asbestosis, lung cancer, or mesothelioma. Smoking increases the risk of developing illness from asbestos exposure.
Three of the major health effects associated with asbestos exposure include:
- Asbestosis – Asbestosis is a serious, progressive, long-term non-cancer disease of the lungs. It is caused by inhaling asbestos fibers that irritate lung tissues and cause the tissues to scar. The scarring makes it hard for oxygen to get into the blood. Symptoms of asbestosis include shortness of breath and a dry, crackling sound in the lungs while inhaling. There is no effective treatment for asbestosis.
- Lung Cancer – Lung cancer causes the largest number of deaths related to asbestos exposure. People who work in the mining, milling, manufacturing of asbestos, and those who use asbestos and its products are more likely to develop lung cancer than the general population. The most common symptoms of lung cancer are coughing and a change in breathing. Other symptoms include shortness of breath, persistent chest pains, hoarseness, and anemia.
- Mesothelioma – Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer that is found in the thin lining (membrane) of the lung, chest, abdomen, and heart and almost all cases are linked to exposure to asbestos. This disease may not show up until many years after asbestos exposure. This is why great efforts are being made to prevent school children from being exposed.
Exposure to asbestos increases your risk of developing lung disease. That risk is made worse by smoking. In general, the greater the exposure to asbestos, the greater the chance of developing harmful health effects. Disease symptoms may take several years to develop following exposure. If you are concerned about possible exposure, consult a physician who specializes in lung diseases (pulmonologist).
For more information on these and other health effects of asbestos exposure see the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry's Web site.
Where Can Asbestos be Found?
Asbestos has been commonly used as an acoustic insulator, thermal insulation, fire proofing and in other building materials. Asbestos fibers are incredibly strong and have properties that make them resistant to heat. Many products are in use today that contain asbestos. Most of these are materials used in heat and acoustic insulation, fire proofing, and roofing and flooring. In 1989, EPA identified the following asbestos product categories. Many of these materials may still be in use.
Asbestos Exposure
Asbestos is a widely used, mineral-based material that is resistant to heat and corrosive chemicals. Typically, asbestos appears as a whitish, fibrous material which may release fibers that range in texture from coarse to silky. However, airborne fibers, that can cause health damage, may be too small to see with the naked eye.
Inhaling these airborne asbestos fibers can cause asbestosis (scarring of the lungs resulting in loss of lung function that often progresses to disability and to death); mesothelioma (cancer affecting the membranes lining of the lungs and abdomen); lung cancer and cancers of the esophagus, stomach, colon, and rectum.
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Potential Hazard
Maintenance workers and engineers can be unknowingly exposed to asbestos from many possible areas and sources. Engineers can be exposed while working in furnace rooms where boilers are insulated with asbestos, or when making repairs to old piping or doing minor renovations. Significant asbestos exposures can occur when insulation in old buildings is removed during renovations. Asbestos exposure is often associated with areas or items that might not be expected to contain asbestos. Maintenance personnel may be unaware and untrained to handle these hazards.
Asbestos is commonly found in old buildings, built in the 1940's and 1950's, and can be found in many items such as:
- HVAC Duct Insulation
- boiler insulation
- pipe insulation
- cooling towers
- floor tile/ceiling tile
- electrical wiring insulation
- wall board or spackling compounds
Possible Solutions
Follow the requirements of the Asbestos Standard for General Industry [29 CFR 1910.1001] including:
Follow permissible exposure limits (PELs) and include provisions for engineering controls, respirators, protective clothing, exposure monitoring, hygiene facilities and practices, warning signs, labeling, record keeping, and medical exams.
Workplace exposure is limited to 0.1 fibers per cubic centimeter of air (0.1 f/cc), averaged over an eight-hour work shift. The excursion or short-term limit is one fiber per cubic centimeter of air (1 f/cc) averaged over a sampling period of 30 minutes.
Whenever asbestos fibers are exposed, they present a hazard and should be removed or encapsulated so that they will not be released. Asbestos should only be removed by fully trained personnel using methods and PPE covered in 1910.1001.
Significant Changes in the Asbestos Standard for General Industry, 1910.1001 (through June 29, 1995) including:
The PEL was reduced from 0.2 fibers/cc to 0.1 fibers/cc from 0.2 fibers/cc as a TWA. The Excursion Limit remains 1.0 fibers/cc averaged over 30 minutes.
Asphalt and vinyl flooring material installed before 1980 also must be treated as asbestos-containing.
Installed thermal system insulation and sprayed-on and troweled-on surfacing materials found in buildings constructed no later than 1980 are presumed to be asbestos-containing materials (greater than 1% asbestos).
Sanding of asbestos-containing flooring material is prohibited.
Building and facility owners must determine the presence, location, and quantity of asbestos-containing material (ACM) and presumed asbestos-containing material (PACM) and keep records of ACM/PACM.
Building and facility owners must inform other employers, and their own employees who will perform housekeeping activities, of the presence and location of such materials.
Employers must post signs at entrances to mechanical rooms/areas that contain ACM/PACM and that employees may enter.
Employers must provide an asbestos awareness training course to employees who will perform housekeeping activities in an area containing ACM or PACM.
EPA regulations (49 CFR Title 40, Protection of the Environment). The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) asbestos regulations are found in 40 CFR 763, Asbestos.
Asbestos Hazards from OSHA
Asbestos workers have increased chances of getting two principal types of cancer: cancer of the lung tissue itself and mesothelioma, a cancer of the thin membrane that surrounds the lung and other internal organs. These diseases do not develop immediately following exposure to asbestos, but appear only after a number of years. The following documents describe the health hazards of asbestos and how to recognize it.
Asbestos. OSHA Fact Sheet, (2002), 63 KB PDF*, 2 pages.
Potential Asbestos Contamination in Soft Concrete. Hazard Information Bulletin (HIB), (1998, October 8). Alerts construction workers and employers to the hazard posed by "soft concrete", a mixture of asbestos/concrete, that was used as a 2 to 10 inch roofing layer. The removal of this type of soft concrete is a task that requires extensive precautions and control methods as prescribed by OSHA construction standard 29 CFR 1926.1101(g), methods of compliance, and the revised 1926.1101(h), respiratory protection. Other sections of 29 CFR 1926.1101 are also applicable.
Asbestos Standard for the General Industry. OSHA Publication 3095, (1995). Also available as a 190 KB PDF, 34 pages. Provides general OSHA guidelines for asbestos.
Asbestos. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Safety and Health Topic. Includes recommendations for preventing occupational exposure to asbestos and other resources.
Revised Recommended Asbestos Standard. US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Publication No. 77-169, (1976, December). Provides extensive discussion of asbestos hazards and control measures. Though the material is dated, this is a valuable resource.
Asbestos Control Training Requirements from EPA
Federal law requires asbestos control professionals to take training on how to properly inspect for the presence of asbestos and to repair and remove it. Training also is required to develop asbestos management plans for schools and to manage and design asbestos abatement projects. States offer these training courses, which must meet EPA guidelines. Find courses offered by each state.
In addition to this initial training, asbestos control professionals must take annual refresher training in order to maintain their accreditation status.
Background
Training for asbestos abatement professionals is required under the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act of 1986 (AHERA), which is the authority under which EPA issued the EPA Asbestos Model Accreditation Plan (MAP) (40 CFR Part 763, Appendix C to Subpart E). The MAP established five required training disciplines (worker, contractor/supervisor, inspector, management planner, and project designer) and one recommended discipline (project monitor).
The Asbestos School Hazard Abatement Reauthorization Act of 1990 (ASHARA) amended AHERA to increase the amount of training hours required in the various MAP course disciplines. EPA's Asbestos MAP provides guidance to states on the training requirements for asbestos control professionals. The state training programs must be at least as stringent as the MAP.
EPA recently determined that, according to the MAP, annual refresher training requirements can also be satisfied through online training in addition to in-person training because the MAP does not require that the annual refresher training be hands-on or in-person. EPA provided states with guidelines (PDF) (3 pp, 28K) for evaluating online annual refresher training courses. EPA no longer directly approves training courses and will, therefore, not approve online refresher training courses. Accrediting states must approve online courses. For more information, read EPA's Memorandum to the States (PDF) (2 pp, 22K).
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Asbestos in the Workplace
While there are a growing number of documented cases of asbestos-related diseases that involve individuals who did not work directly with asbestos or asbestos-containing products, the majority of those who contract such diseases are exposed while on the job.
Exposure to asbestos in the workplace actually goes back centuries, when slaves were made to mine asbestos for various uses such as Egyptian mummification clothes and textiles like tablecloths and napkins, used during the time of the Roman Empire.
Modern-day exposure in the workplace, however, began during the Industrial Revolution and continued through the asbestos warnings and regulations of the 1970s. For decades, workers toiled - virtually unprotected from danger - amidst the airborne fibers of a product that might possibly sicken and eventually kill them.
Taking Precautions
No degree of exposure to asbestos is safe and, unfortunately, throughout the years since asbestos was first introduced in the workplace, employers took little or no precautions to protect employees from inhaling dangerous fibers.
Their nonchalance wasn't caused by a lack of knowledge about the dangers of asbestos. As a matter of fact, physicians in the late 1800s were already attributing a rise in pulmonary diseases to asbestos exposure. In 1906, the first asbestos-related death was recorded, and by 1928, doctors and research scientists devised the name "asbestosis" for any lung diseases that appeared to be caused by asbestos inhalation.
Obviously, employers were aware of the dangers of working closely with the mineral and had only to provide protective gear in order to spare many lives. But few did. Instead, business owners and managers had "private meetings" about suspicious employee deaths and circulated internal memos that stressed caution when speaking about these delicate situations. They altered memos from insurance companies meant to warn employees about the risks they faced on the job. They also changed the results of studies which they were ordered to conduct in regards to the dangers of asbestos, attempting to ensure employees that they were safe.
In all, the problems with asbestos and asbestos exposure were virtually ignored until the 1970s, when the Environmental Protection Agency issued warnings and, subsequently, some bans on the use of asbestos. But it was too late for those who had already been exposed and those who would soon be stricken with asbestos-related diseases.
Who Was at Risk in the Workplace?
A number of occupations carry high risks for asbestos exposure. Not everyone who worked in these fields will develop asbestos-related diseases, but the highest numbers are among employees in worked in the following areas:
Shipyards - Those who toiled in the nation's shipyards are among the most affected by asbestos-related diseases. The highest incidence has been seen among men who worked in the shipyards during World War II, when more than 4 million Americans - civilian and military - were employed at yards around the country. Occupations particularly affected include insulators, steamfitters, pipefitters, boilermen, plumbers, and electricians. Those who repaired damaged war ships often encountered high amounts of friable asbestos which was usually removed by hand with no protection. Those men suffer an especially high risk factor.
Railroads - Trains made use of asbestos for many years, from steam locomotives to the diesel variety. The material was used to line boilers, fireboxes, and steam pipes as well as in rope, cement, gaskets, and tiles for passenger cars. In addition, asbestos was considered the perfect fire-resistant material for railroad brakes and clutches.
Automotive Repair - The auto industry used asbestos in brake and clutch linings. Unfortunately, mechanics encountering old brakes or those imported from other countries that still use asbestos may be inhaling asbestos fibers when they work on a car containing those parts.
Contractors/Construction Workers - The construction industry was one of the largest users of asbestos-containing products. From insulation to drywall tape, from stucco to wallboard - construction workers faced asbestos no matter where they turned, both in home and commercial building projects.
Power Plants - Because of the heat generated at power plants, asbestos was once widely used for insulation of items such as boilers, turbines, and generators.
Oil Refineries - As in power plants, many pieces of equipment at oil refineries were insulated with asbestos, due to its heat- and fire-resistant properties.
Steel Mills - Thermal insulation products fashioned from asbestos were commonly found in steel mills around the country.
Asbestos product manufacturers - Factories that produced building materials and other items that contained asbestos put their workers at constant risk of exposure.
Mines - Those who toiled in talc or vermiculite mines probably inhaled asbestos fibers on a daily basis.
Firefighters - Firefighters who respond to fires and other emergencies at old buildings which contain asbestos may potentially inhale the fibers if not adequately protected.
For more infomation about hazards of asbestos (including mesothelioma), please visit Asbestos.com
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