Sustainability & Risk / Hazard Abatement / Background Data - Hazards
Developing Hazmat-Specific Background Data
In order to electronically track and analyze your site's hazardous material management, you must first define the practices and standards that your site uses to monitor hazardous materials. With this detailed information defined, you will be able to reference it when tracking specific occurrences of hazardous materials at your site.
The Background Data - Hazards process provides several tables for defining your practices. A facility manager, or other staff versed in the hazardous material policies and the practices at your site, should carefully complete these tables. You may need to research certain details of your practices, such as the specific regulations regarding your materials, accreditation of abatement workers and inspectors, and so on. Taking the time to carefully and completely define your conventions will enable you to better track the management of hazardous materials.
For US-based companies, the following sites provide valuable information on US hazmat policies.
| Documentation | Web Site |
|---|---|
| Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) | http://www.epa.gov/regulations/laws/tsca.html |
| National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) 40 CFR Part 61, Subpart M | http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/asbes/pdfs/40cfr61subpartm.pdf |
| Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) 40 CFR Part 763 | http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/pdf/2003pt763.pdf |
| School-specific asbestos information from EPA | http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/pubs/asbestos_in_schools.html |
| Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Asbestos Fact Sheet | http://ehs.okstate.edu/training/OSHASBES.HTM |
| Asbestos laws and regulations | http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/pubs/asbreg.html |
Reference Data
The HQ data for the Hazard Abatement application contains data that is based on conventions, guidelines, and practices defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA).
As you complete in your own project database the background data about your hazmat practices, you will note that your project database automatically contains many of these same reference records. For example, the Material Classifications table contains AHERA-specific categories. These records are provided as a courtesy to help US companies quickly get started with the Hazard Abatement application so that they do not need to enter these EPA-based and AHERA-based records.
Non-US users can delete these records and enter their own data, based on the government regulations to which they must adhere.
Associating Hazardous Substances with Background Data Tables
Once you complete your list of hazardous substances (with the Define Hazardous Substances task), you will see that subsequent background data tasks provide the ability to associate a hazardous substance with other values required for the hazmat management process, such as certification agencies, classifications, and laboratories. Associating a specific hazardous substance with your records enables you to filter your data according to the substance and can be valuable when working with a large set of records. However, this practice is optional and can be implemented on a table-per-table and record-per-record basis.
If a value is specific to a particular hazardous substance, you will want to complete the Hazardous Substance field. For example, if a lab handles only asbestos, you can indicate this by completing the Hazardous Substance field of the Laboratories table. Then, when searching for a particular lab, you can limit your search to only labs handling asbestos and easily find the lab you require.
If the value can apply to multiple hazardous substances, such as to both mold and asbestos, you may wish to leave these items' Hazardous Substance fields blank. For example, when defining conditions, you may wish to indicate that a particular condition, such as Damaged, can result from multiple hazardous substances. In this case, you would leave the Hazardous Substance field blank for the Damaged record.
Background Data Reports
For your convenience, all of the tasks for developing hazmat-specific data are available in report format using the Background Data - Reports process. When developing standards, you may find it convenient to print these reports or export them to Word format so that you can review and share your background data with others involved in the hazmat process.
Developing Hazardous Material Background Data
To define your hazmat practices and lookup lists to be used in managing hazardous materials, you will work through tasks of the Background Data - Hazards process, which are covered in these topics:
Hazardous Materials and their Properties
Hazardous Material Sample Compositions and Laboratories
Responses to Hazardous Material Situations