TABLE OF CONTENT
1. PURPOSE
This practice provides the requirements for handling asbestos when it is discovered incidentally to other services provided to a client.
This practice includes the following major sections:
- General Requirements
- Responsibilities
- Handling/Removal
- Air Monitoring
- Accidental Exposure
2. APPLICATION
This practice applies to work activities and employees under the control of [COMPANY NAME] and its contractors.
3. DEFINITIONS
Asbestos - A naturally occurring mineral fiber with any of the following names:
- Chrysotile
- Amosite
- Crocidolite
- Fibrous tremolite
- Fibrous anthophyllite
- Fibrous actinolite
Asbestos Fiber - Asbestos that is 5 micrometers or longer with a length at least 3 times the diameter.
Cemented Asbestos - Asbestos is tightly bound with tar, Portland cement, or different cloth.
Competent Person – One who's able to figure out present and predictable risks inside the environment or running situations that might be unsanitary, hazardous, or risky to employees, and who has the authorization to take activate corrective measures to put off them.
Friable Asbestos - Asbestos that can be crushed, pulverized, or decreased to dust with hand strain.
Regulated Area – An area established to demarcate areas where airborne concentrations of asbestos or asbestos-containing materials can reasonably be expected to exceed the permissible limits.
Time-Weighted Average (TWA) – concentration for a normal 8-hour workday and a 40-hour work week, to which nearly all employees may be repeatedly exposed, day after day, without adverse effect.
4. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
If asbestos is encountered, the client will be notified immediately. It is preferred by [COMPANY NAME] that the client takes charge of hiring and managing an asbestos removal company. However, if approval is granted from Business Line Management to provide client support in managing an asbestos removal company, the Business Line HSE Lead will be contacted for assistance in developing a domain-precise asbestos contractor management plan.
[COMPANY NAME] employees will not handle, remove, transport, or dispose of asbestos-containing materials. If it is necessary to remove asbestos, the client should contract with an approved asbestos abatement company.
5. RESPONSIBILITIES
5.1 Project/Site Manager
The Project/Site Manager will notify the client that asbestos-containing material has been detected and that it must be removed. The Project/Site Manager will request that the owner lease and manipulate an asbestos removal company. If the client is desirous of [COMPANY NAME] assisting the client with its management of the asbestos removal company, the Project/Site Manager must immediately obtain approval from Business Line Management. Approval by Business Line Management will depend upon whether or not the client has provided [COMPANY NAME] with adequate protection against potential liability, normally addressed in [COMPANY NAME] contract with the client. [COMPANY NAME] Legal Services must be consulted to ensure adequate legal protection is available.
5.2 Asbestos Removal Company
[COMPANY NAME] will recommend that the client hire a qualified — and where required — licensed contractor to remove and dispose of the asbestos following applicable standards and accepted industry practice. If approval has been received from Business Line Management to assist the client with its management of the asbestos removal company, [COMPANY NAME] will assist the client with its monitoring of the following actions.
The asbestos abatement and removal company will:
- Direct the auditing and monitoring activities of employees and/or a contractor, to ensure that job procedure is managed properly.
- Maintain correct records of all paintings carried out.
- Maintain correct statistics of asbestos and asbestos–loose areas.
- Maintain correct information of all material sampling.
- When required or necessary, arrange for the excavation of new dumping trenches at the asbestos dump.
- Maintain smooth and orderly situations at the asbestos sell-off.
- Carry out an everyday visual inspection of the cells.
- Provide the labor force with the proper training, correct apparel, and safety equipment when working within a declared “asbestos working area.”
- Provide for the removal of bags or bulk material to be transported to an approved asbestos dump within 24 hours of removal.
- At all times during, and upon completion of any removal program, maintain the worksite in a clean, tidy, and safe situation (such as off-cuts, empty containers, and other materials used or removed from the worksite).
Monitor performance towards standards in the following regions:
- Respirators and other protection equipment
- Decontamination units and change rooms
- Use and servicing of negative air units
- Servicing vacuum cleaners
- Disposal of waste materials
- Removal of asbestos-containing materials
5.3 Qualified Hygienist
If approval has been received from Business Line Management to assist the client with its management of an asbestos removal company, [COMPANY NAME] will employ the services of a qualified hygienist through an approved contractor to perform the following:
- Monitor the activities of [COMPANY NAME] employees, using both occupational and para-occupational air monitoring before, during, and after the asbestos abatement work.
- Follow-up tracking results and redirect wherein important.
- Maintain an accurate record of all-fiber monitoring results and disseminate results to personnel involved.
- Require the client and the client’s asbestos abatement contractor to routinely inspect all asbestos work areas so that applicable standards are being strictly followed.
- Forward applicable fiber monitoring results to the [COMPANY NAME] HSE Representative.
6. REMOVAL/REMOVAL
If approval has been received from Business Line Management to assist the client with its management of the asbestos removal company, the following information is provided so that [COMPANY NAME] can address asbestos issues as they might arise.
6.1 Allowable Exposure Limits
The individual permissible exposure limit (PEL) is 0.1 fibers/cc, 8-hour TWA. The excursion limit is 1.0 fiber/cc measured over 30 minutes.
6.2 Requirements
Wherever feasible, the asbestos abatement contractor must establish a negative pressure enclosure. The asbestos abatement contractor must designate a Competent Person, HSE General Requirements, who will supervise the following:
- Setting up the enclosure
- The integrity of the enclosure
- Entry to and exit from the enclosure
- All employee exposure monitoring
- Provision and use of hygiene facilities through employees
- Appropriate use of protective clothing Such as coveralls, gloves, head coverings, foot coverings, face shields, vented goggles, and respirators within the enclosure
The asbestos abatement contractor’s certain Competent Person will confirm the following:
- Employees are trained in work practices, personal protective equipment (PPE), respiratory equipment, and engineering controls that reduce or maintain the exposure below the TWA such as exhaust systems, hand tools, wet methods, cleanup procedures, and PPE.
- Engineering controls are functioning properly.
Note: Small-scale, short-duration operations such as pipe repairs, valve replacement, installing electrical conduits, installing or moving drywall, roofing, and other general building maintenance or renovation, do not require the client or an asbestos abatement contractor to comply with the above requirements. Any employee, including employees performing housekeeping activities before or after construction activities, who is exposed at or above the action level (0.1 fibers/cc, 8-hour TWA) for 30 or more days per year, even if they are not working directly with the asbestos, must have the following:
- A medical examination, Pre-Project Medical Examination — International.
- Respirator training and respirator fit testing, Respiratory Protection.
- Employees wearing negative pressure respirators must have either quantitative or qualitative fit tests.
- The qualitative fit test may only be used for testing the fit of a half-face respirator.
Respirators must be used within the following instances:
- Work practice controls
- Work operations
- To reduce exposure
- Emergencies
Note: Respirators are to be provided to employees at no cost to the employees and should be chosen from those approved by NIOSH. Powered air-purifying respirators will be available to employees upon request when the respirator will provide adequate protection.
Respirators will be used as shown below:
Asbestos Concentration-Minimum Respirator Required
Not to exceed 2 fiber/cc-Half-face air-purifying respirator equipped with high-efficiency filters
Not to exceed 10 fibers/cc Full facepiece air-purifying respirator equipped with high-efficiency filters
Not to exceed 20 fibers/cc air-supplied respirator with continuous flow or pressure-demand regulator.
Any powered air-purifying respirator is equipped with excessive-efficiency filters.
Not to exceed 200 fibers/cc-Full facepiece air-supplied respirator operated in pressure-demand mode.
Over 200 fibers/cc-Full facepiece supplied-air respirator
Unknown concentrations operated in strain-call for mode geared up with an auxiliary nice stress self-contained respiration equipment.
- Full-body covering that will prevent contamination of the employee's skin or clothing.
- Wash facilities to take away asbestos from the face, arms, and some other parts of the frame not included through garb.
- A place to store and consume food, beverages, and tobacco products so that these items will not be contaminated by asbestos.
- Procedures and a designated area for changing into and removing protective clothing to prevent asbestos contamination of other facilities, such as eating areas, shops, toolrooms, and offices.
Initial and annual education to encompass the subsequent:
- Routine and emergency tactics accompanied even as working with asbestos
- Health effects associated with asbestos
- Health effects of smoking and asbestos exposure
- Review of this practice, or site-specific procedure
- Review of applicable exposure monitoring
- PPE and limitations
- A certificate of training should be provided and maintained
6.3 Controls and Work Practices
The Competent Person has to make sure that the following controls and paintings practices are implemented:
- Friable asbestos is saturated with wetting retailers earlier than elimination, every time possible.
- Enclosures are used when friable asbestos must be removed without wetting, and a filtered exhaust system will be used to remove fibers from the enclosure.
- Removed asbestos is bagged, labeled, stored, or disposed of daily in a way that will prevent the release of fibers.
- For work that may release fibers from cemented asbestos, such as sawing, grinding, or drilling, the tools are equipped with a local exhaust system or a water spray at the point of operation.
- Barricades are used to restrict the range of personnel exposed to asbestos.
Work areas that have been barricaded or enclosed have signs posted at all entrances that indicate:
DANGER ASBESTOS CANCER AND LUNG DISEASE HAZARD AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY RESPIRATORS & PROTECTIVE CLOTHING ARE REQUIRED IN THIS AREA
Each enclosed or barricaded area must be cleaned at the end of each workday with a vacuum cleaner, by wet sweeping, or other effective means of fiber cleanup. Insulation that contains greater than 1 percent asbestos will not be installed or reinstalled, except that it may be spray-applied to equipment with advance notification to the relevant authorities.
Disposal areas and asbestos containers must be labeled:
DANGER CONTAINS ASBESTOS FIBERS AVOID CREATING DUST CANCER AND LUNG DISEASE HAZARD
Note: The letters and label may be any size and color as long as it is easy to read.
The applicable regulatory authority has to be notified earlier than asbestos removal.
6.4 Recordkeeping
A list containing the names of [COMPANY NAME] employees exposed to asbestos must be maintained at the site. All records and documentation will be maintained following the schedule provided in Practice, Records Management, and Document Control.
7. AIR MONITORING
The asbestos removal company upon notification — preferably 24 hours in advance of the requirement — will arrange for a qualified hygienist to perform the monitoring. The qualified hygienist will:
- Supply sufficient monitors as requested.
- Position monitors in the breathing zone of selected employees.
- Start/stop the occupational monitors on selected employees.
- Ensure samples are representative of the 8-hour TWA, and 30-minute excursion exposure.
- Control the operation of para-occupational monitors for the duration of the job.
- Provide results of the monitoring to the [COMPANY NAME] HSE Representative for distribution to the work parties involved.
If monitoring data indicates the TWA and/or excursion limits are exceeded, the contractor must develop and implement a written plan to reduce employee exposure. The plan should include engineering and work practice controls and the use of respiratory protection.
8. ACCIDENTAL EXPOSURE
Decontamination of an employee accidentally exposed to asbestos must be conducted following applicable standards. At a minimum, the following steps must be taken following accidental asbestos exposure.
Once it is suspected that an employee has been accidentally exposed to asbestos, the employee will be isolated from all other employees as follows:
- Isolate the employee in a location not used for eating or other personal use.
- Isolate the employee in an area free of drafts.
- Turn off any HVAC in the isolation area.
Before a potentially uncovered worker enters an isolation place:
- Spread plastic sheeting, if available, on the floor in one area of the room.
- If plastic sheeting is not available, use plastic trash liners.
- Place an empty trash can with a clean plastic trash liner on the plastic sheeting.
- Adjacent to the plastic sheeting provides clean towels or another form of clothing that a disrobed employee can use to cover up.
- Have the employee enter an “isolation area” and stand on the plastic sheeting.
- Support personnel, suited up with appropriate PPE and a respirator suitable for asbestos, will take a HEPA vacuum and vacuum-clean the clothing worn by the potentially exposed employee.
- After being vacuum-cleaned, the potentially exposed employee will discard all clothing exposed to the potential asbestos substance into the trash can and carefully close the plastic liner in the trash can to prevent further spread of contamination.
- After discarding the contaminated clothing, the potentially exposed employee should move onto a clean area of the plastic sheeting and don the coverup provided.
- Once the coverup is donned, the potentially exposed employee will proceed to a shower (the separate area from the isolation area).
- All temporary coverup clothing will be removed and placed in a plastic bag and secured with a tie-wrap. This garb is disposed of with the opposite decontamination materials.
- The employee will thoroughly wash and rinse before donning regular clothing.
- Support personnel, suited up with appropriate PPE and a respirator suitable for asbestos, will decontaminate the isolation area.
Arrange for disposal of probably infected materials as follows:
- Enter the isolation area with large plastic bags.
- Using spray mist bottles, dampen the plastic sheeting on the floor.
- Carefully fold the sheeting inward in overlapping folds to prevent any asbestos materials from contaminating the emergency isolation area.
- Place the plastic sheeting in a plastic bag and seal the bag. Place the bagged sheeting in a second plastic bag and seal the bag.
- Remove the plastic liner containing the contaminated clothing from the trash can, place the liner and clothing in a second plastic bag, and seal the second plastic bag.
- Retrieve the plastic bag containing the coverup clothing from the shower area and place it in a second plastic bag and seal the bag.
- Store the plastic bags in a secure area, away from normal work areas or traffic.
- Post a warning sign that bags may contain asbestos – do not disturb.
- Proceed through the decontamination sequence above.
Arrange for sampling and evaluation of the suspected asbestos substance. Has the substance been tested for asbestos? If test results are negative for asbestos, provided no other harmful substance is involved, the employee’s clothing may be returned, and plastic sheeting can be disposed of in a normal manner.
If test results are positive for asbestos, contaminated clothing and sheeting must be disposed of following mandated asbestos disposal procedures. The potentially exposed employee will be provided medical counseling concerning asbestos exposure, and all regulatory exposure requirements must be adhered to.
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