Sustainability & Risk / Hazard Abatement / Environmental Hazard Manager
Sustainability & Risk / Hazard Abatement / Field Assessor

Collecting Samples to be Tested for Hazardous Substances

To verify that an area is hazardous-free, it is typically necessary to collect samples and send the samples to a lab to test for the presence of hazardous substances.

For example, if you suspect that asbestos has been disturbed and released into the environment, you can collect a soil sample, an air sample, or a dust sample and send them to a lab for testing. If the results show that asbestos is present, you most likely need to start planning for an abatement project. If preliminary test results are inconclusive, you may need to collect a more comprehensive set of samples.

As another example, you may visibly see mold at your site. However, it is important to collect a sample so that you can identify the type of mold.

Some building materials (such as pipe insulation) will contain a manufacturer label that verifies presence of asbestos, in which case a sample isn’t necessary. If an area is difficult to access to collect a sample and the building material in question likely contains hazardous substances, an inspector may choose not to collect a sample by presuming that hazmat is present.

Collecting Samples

Collecting samples may be done in various phases of a hazmat project, and by various users involved in the hazmat project. For example:

As you can see, a particular area to assess may have several samples associated with it, each representing a different phase of a hazmat process. For each separate sample, it is important to identify the collection date, who collected the sample, where it was sent for testing, and so on. For each separate sample, this information can greatly vary.

Following the Proper Collection Procedures

Depending on the type of sample you are collecting and the hazardous substance for which you are testing, you may need to follow specific requirements when collecting the sample. You should contact your appropriate government regulatory agency for information on these requirements. For example, US-based companies may want to consult the EPA's Test Method Collections page at http://www.epa.gov/fem/methcollectns.htm. Testing a sample that was not properly collected can produce inconclusive results.

Determining How Many Samples to Collect

Although each sample that you collect will be linked to a hazmat assessment item, it is not necessary that you collect samples for each area documented with a hazmat assessment item. The certified inspector inspects the areas defined by the hazmat assessment items, but determines where actual sampling is necessary.

The inspector inspect all requested areas and indicates which areas were sampled. Optionally, they can indicate these areas on floor plan drawings, as described at the end of this topic. They will also note which areas were not sampled but are presumed to contain the hazard.

The inspector’s sampling methods vary by substance.

Documenting How you Collect Samples

Whether you are a field assessor, an inspector, or an environmental hazard manager, you will enter sample information using the Manage Assessment Items task or the Manage My Assessment Items task.

Note: A field assessor is typically an internal employee who has access to Field Assessor role and the Manage My Assessment Items task. If an inspector, as an outside employee, does not have access to the Archibus system, they can provide the collection data to the environmental hazard manager who will then enter the data.

  1. Select the Manage Assessment Items task, which is available from both the Field Assessor and Environmental Hazard Manager roles.

  2. Select the hazard assessment project to see a list of existing assessment items for this project. If you are not an environmental hazard manager, you will see items assigned only to you.
  1. To indicate that sampling is in process, in the hazard assessment record you can set the Hazard Status value to "INSPECTION- Inspection and Sampling in Process."

Documenting on a Floor Plan Drawing the Area from which you Collected a Sample

For complete documentation of your gathered samples, you may wish to indicate on a floor plan CAD drawing the exact areas on the floor from which you gathered samples.

If your site wants to update CAD drawings in this manner, as a sample collector you will need to make notes on the exact location from which you gathered the samples. This information will then be passed along to a CAD specialist who will update the floor plan drawings with these locations. There are a few methods for noting this information:

For information on updating a CAD floor plan drawing with sample information, see Draw Hazard Samples.

Next

The assessment manager now sends the samples to the lab for testing. When the lab returns its results, an assessment manager typically completes information about how the lab managed the samples and the results it found. See Recording Hazardous Substance Test Results.