HAZMAT Technician 29 CFR 1910.120 (q)

Our HAZMAT Technicians course has been awarded 4.01 Industrial Hygiene CM Points by the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH) — approval number 13334. This course is eligible for 2.40 Continuance of Certification (COC) points from the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP). All completed hours count as CEUs.

The course consists of over 70 modules, including 14 videos. interactive animations, and award-winning content. A study timer helps you keep track of your progress and allows you to stop and start again at your own convenience. Support is available throughout the course, which includes self-grading quizzes and a final exam.

A minimum of 24 hours of study time is required to successfully complete the HAZMAT Technicians course. The training consists of a modular format in which employers may choose the topics that best fit the needs of their hazardous materials team. Topics include:

• Chemistry
• Advanced recognition and identification
• Pre-incident planning
• Incident management
• Scene evaluation and termination
• Toxicology
• Medical surveillance
• Emergency care
• Respiratory protection
• PPE usage and limitations
• Decontamination

Training is centered around the mitigation of leaks, spills, and exposures to hazardous materials. Upon successful completion of the course, students will have learned how to:

• Explain the federal regulations governing the use, storage, and transport of hazardous materials in the United States.
• Describe health and safety issues by classes of chemicals and toxic effects on specific body systems.
• Discuss the importance of medical surveillance and proactive health and safety planning.
• Identify the different types of containers used to transport/store hazardous materials.
• Describe the pre-incident planning process, including the performance of hazard analysis and risk assessment.
• Discuss the chemical principles and terms of practical application to firefighters responding to hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction incidents.
• Explain the factors related to the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), including chemical compatibility, the physiological and psychological stresses of wearing encapsulated clothing, and maintenance.
• Explain the types, levels, and process of decontamination, including step-by-step procedures and set-up of the area.
• Describe special decontamination situations such as decon for radiation and etiologic agents.
• Describe the structure of a typical incident management system at a hazardous materials incident with a focus on the Hazardous Materials Sector/Group.
• Describe the technician level responder’s role at a hazardous materials incident resulting from terrorist activities.
• Describe how to assess, treat, and transport patients who have been exposed to hazardous materials or injured at such incidents.
• Describe the defensive and offensive control measures used by hazardous materials response team members in students’ jurisdiction including, but not limited to:
  • Diking
  • Damming
  • Plugging
  • Patching
  • Overpacking
  • Transfer operations

Students who successfully complete the course will receive a certificate of completion that is accepted by regulatory agencies. View the full table of contents here.

As with any training (classroom or online), the employer is required by regulations to train the employee(s) on performance based standards for any applicable equipment. This is a site-specific requirement and typically can’t be achieved in a regular public seminar or open enrollment class where training on a respirator(s) or PPE in general does not meet the site-specific regulatory requirement. Generic hands-on training on PPE and equipment doesn’t fully meet the OSHA regulations.

The standards set forth by OSHA-approved Plan States must be at least as stringent as the Federal HAZWOPER training requirements and may have additional requirements of their own.

Employees who respond to releases in an aggressive fashion for the purpose of stopping the release must be trained to the HAZMAT technician level. These individuals approach the point of release to plug, patch, or otherwise stop the hazardous substance release. Employees such as chemical process operators may be required to shut down processes, close emergency valves, and otherwise secure operations that are not in the danger area before evacuating in the event of an emergency. These procedures need to be delineated in the ERP, and employees must be trained to be able to perform these pre-evacuation procedures safely. Employees who perform these operations are not considered “emergency responders.” However, if they are expected to perform duties in the danger area beyond what they are trained to do and comparable to those of a HAZMAT technician or the defensive role of the first responder at the operations level, then they would be expected to be trained as emergency responders in accordance with 1910.120(q).

Process operators who have (1) informed the incident command structure of an emergency (defined in the facility’s ERP); (2) adequate PPE; (3) adequate training in the procedures they are to perform; and (4) employed the buddy system, may take limited action in the danger area (e.g., turning a valve) before the emergency response team arrives. The limited action taken by process operators must be addressed in the ERP.

Once the emergency response team arrives, these employees would be restricted to the actions that their training level allows. This limited action assumes that the emergency response team is on its way and that the action taken is necessary to prevent the incident from increasing in severity (i.e., to prevent a catastrophe).

Employers must inform such employees during their training that they are to evacuate when they lack the capabilities to respond in a safe manner and in accordance with the standard operating procedures defined in the ERP.

For example, first responders (e.g., law enforcement, firefighters, etc.) involved in methamphetamine lab raids are often confronted with releases of, or substantial threats of releases of, hazardous substances such as caustics, solvents, and toxic gases (e.g., phosphine). The training for these personnel must be based on the expected roles and responsibilities during the emergency response. As such, the response personnel responsible for taking the aggressive role of shutting down the laboratory “cooking” process would likely face the greatest exposures, and must be trained to at least the hazardous materials technician level. (Note: Any post-emergency response clean-up must be done in accordance with (q)(11); clean-ups not resulting from an emergency response and that fall under (a)(1)(i)-(iv) must be done in accordance with paragraphs (b)-(o) of HAZWOPER.)