Sustainability & Risk / Hazard Abatement / Background Data - Hazards

Defining Hazard Action and Problem Types

As you manage the hazmat issues at your site, you will want to use action items (activity_log table) or service requests to track the specific tasks that must be executed in order to manage the problem. For example, you can use action items and service requests to manage the details of inspecting an area, recording laboratory results of a sample, and estimating abatement costs. For information, see Manage your Hazardous Material Issues with Service Requests or Action Items (Concept).

Define Hazard Action Types

If you want to manage your hazmat issues with action items (stored in the activity_log table), you need to define the broad categories (action types) into which the hazmat action items will fall. Typical categories are: lab testing, surveying, sampling.

Action items are used by other Archibus applications, so the system prefixes new records created with this task with the prefix "HAZMAT-" so that you can easily identify the action types that are specific to hazardous material management. Other fields to complete are:

Field	Description
Requested Action	Uniquely identifies the type of action. The system adds the prefix HAZMAT- to values that you enter.
Action Type Hazardous Substance	Associate a specific hazardous substance with this type of action, such as associating asbestos with an action type of inspection.
Action Type Standard Cost	Use this field to associate a ballpark “standard” cost with an action type. Use cases include inspection cost, lab testing cost, air monitoring cost, permit fees, all of which might have a general “average” price that you might want to capture. Note that for any specific action, the standard cost defined here can be overridden using the cost fields in the action itself.
Action Type Description	Enter a description of this type of action.
Action Type Instructions	Enter general instructions for this type of action, such as the general steps required for an inspection action.

Define Hazard Problem Types

Use the Problem Types table to define the actions that you might need to take to resolve a hazmat issue (such as inspect or abate). The system uses these values to designate actions for both service requests and assessment items.

Since problem types are used by other applications, such as Corrective Maintenance and Preventive Maintenance, you typically want to use the table's unlimited-tier hierarchy feature to prefix the problem type with an indicator that indicates that it is for hazardous material management. For example, the sample data uses the parent CB (for "Clean Building," the former name of the Hazard Abatement application), so that an individual hazmat service request type is named in the format CB|CHILD, such as CB|INSPECT.

If you want to add your own items to the CB list (which is included in new project databases), select CB, and then select the Add New Child Record button. If you want to create a new parent category, choose Add New to create a new parent, and then create the child records using the Add New Child button.

You can then enter a descriptive name and comments.

Note: The values from this table are used to validate the Pending Action field of hazard assessment items. See Environmental Hazard Manager / Manage Assessment Items / Provide Details about Surveying a Hazmat Assessment Item.