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.
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