Bored in Asbestos Refresher Class?

I spend a lot of time in continuing education classes, including annual asbestos refresher classes. Some of the classes are a regulatory requirement and others are topics I'm interested in. Certifications such as the Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH), Certified Safety Professional (CSP), and Certified Indoor Environmentalist (CIE) require a certain amount of contact hours for continuing education.

In a given year, I devour an average of 100 hours in conferences, refresher classes, and continuing education as shown below:

• Asbestos Building Inspector: 4 hours per year
• Asbestos Contractor Supervisor: 8 hours per year
• Asbestos Management Planner: 4 hours per year
• Asbestos Project Designer: 8 hours per year
• Lead Risk Assessor: 8 hours every three years
• Lead Project Designer: 8 hours every three years
• Industrial Hygiene Ethics: 1-2 hours every other year
• American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) Safety Professional Development Conference: 3 days every other year
• American Industrial Hygiene Conference & Exposition (AIHce): 3 days every other year
• Local Arizona ASSE Safety Professional Development Conference: 8 hours every year
• OSHA 503 Update for General Industry Trainers: 3 days every three years
• Indoor Air Quality Association (IAQA) Chapter Meetings or Webinars: 8 hours per year
• HAZWOPER Refresher: 8 hours per year
• Hazardous Materials and Waste Transportation Refresher: 10 hours every three years
• Hazardous/Toxic Waste Management Refresher: 8 hours every three years
• Other interesting continuing education courses: 8-16 hours per year

I recently spent part of a morning texting a friend/client (at their request) to help them stay awake in asbestos refresher class. This got me thinking about all the times I attempted to keep focused during class in the 8+ years of various asbestos refreshers, to little avail.

Attendees to asbestos refresher class can be very disruptive, using the class as a vehicle to network (loudly) with consultants, contractors, and building owners or representatives. Sometimes they'll spend the entire day texting and emailing, jumping out of their seats to take a call in the lobby, speaking just loud enough so the rest of the class can see how busy and important they are. Others open up their laptops and just work on projects during the refresher class. If there are snacks or coffee provided, you're guaranteed to have some obnoxiously loud slurpers or chewers. 

Here's some of the ways I quietly and unobtrusively entertain myself during asbestos refresher class:

• Play "Free Rice" on my cell phone - less obvious than some of the other cell phone games, just as addictive, and your learning helps contribute to donations of rice via the World Food Programme
• Doodle all over my refresher class notes
• Make up my own acronyms (EPA, AHERA, MAP, NIOSH, OSHA, etc.)
• If desperately bored, I'll go through other continuing education courses on my iPhone or iPad, like the CDC Biosafety QuickLearn lessons, California Department of Public Health Continuing Education Courses on Lead/Mercury/Coccidioidomycosis, and University of Minnesota School of Public Health's free online courses in public health

And, of course, I'll pay attention to new letters of interpretation or interesting arguments, answer questions when prompted, and complete the end of course test or assessment in record time.

I drafted this latest Industrious Hygienist manga during the text session with my friend/client, hope you enjoy it.

The Industrious Hygienist is never bored in asbestos refresher class!

Need help with (insert topic here)? There's an ASTM Standard for that!

I have been slowly purchasing and collecting ASTM International Standards for years (they're not entirely cheap), and this weekend, I developed a wish list of ASTM standards I plan to purchase in 2014.

Under Industrial Hygiene and Safety Standards:

ASTM E2238 - 12: Standard Guide for Evacuation Route Diagrams ($37)

ASTM F1461 - 12: Standard Practice for Chemical Protective Clothing Program ($42)

ASTM D4276 - 02 (2012): Standard Practice for Confined Area Entry ($37)

ASTM E2565 - 09: Standard Guide for Consensus-based Process for an Occupational Safety and Health Standard that Includes an Occupational Exposure Guideline ($37)

For Asbestos:

ASTM E2356 - 10: Standard Practice for Comprehensive Building Asbestos Surveys ($67)

ASTM E1368 - 11: Standard Practice for Visual Inspection of Asbestos Abatement Projects ($48)

ASTM D7201 - 06 (2011): Standard Practice for Sampling and Counting Airborne Fibers, Including Asbestos Fibers, in the Workplace, by Phase Contrast Microscopy (with an Option of Transmission Electron Microscopy) ($60)

For Lead:

ASTM E2255 / E2255M - 13: Standard Practice for Conducting Visual Assessments for Lead Hazards in Buildings ($48)

ASTM E2239 - 12: Standard Practice for Record Keeping and Record Preservation for Lead Hazard Activities ($37)

For Mold and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ):

ASTM D7338 - 10: Standard Guide for Assessment Of Fungal Growth in Buildings ($42)

ASTM D6245 - 12: Standard Guide for Using Indoor Carbon Dioxide Concentrations to Evaluate Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation ($32)

If you're a professor or faculty at a university or college, there's a variety of resources available for you and your students. If you're a student, there's limited grant money available for research assistance if you use an ASTM standard in your research.

Emergency Preparedness and Response for Floods (e.g. Colorado)

In response to the incredible flooding in Colorado earlier this month, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) via their National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) published a new web page with information on emergency preparedness and response in flood situations.

See the web page here on floods.

NIEHS emphasized the preparedness factor for responders to flooding, cleanup workers and restoration workers, homeowners, and business owners. The training/information covers safety awareness and post-disaster hazards.

On the page, there's also preparedness information about:

• earthquakes
• H1N1 (swine) flu, avian flu, pandemics
• oil spills
• wildfires
• resiliency
• radiological dispersion devices (RDD) a.k.a. "dirty bombs"

The Industrious Hygienist is always excited to find new references to explore and share with others! Thanks to NIEHS for the useful tools and guidance from a variety of federal departments. 

Dangit, I missed "Happy N95 Day" on September 5th from NIOSH!

The Industrious Hygienist likes to stay abreast of interesting things in occupational health and safety. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) celebrated its second anniversary of N95 Day on September 5, 2013. 

NIOSH spent the day promoting its Epidemiological Global Health Project (Supercourse), which it developed with the University of Pittsburgh.  NIOSH also promoted their "Know It's NIOSH" campaign, which is dedicated to helping workers understand how to determine if their respirator is NIOSH-approved. The University of Pittsburgh Supercourse has an presentation about the "Know It's NIOSH" campaign, viewable here. 

Following my commitment to healthcare occupational health and safety, I quickly downloaded the new (June 2013) "Respirator Awareness: Your Health May Depend On It - Personal Protective Equipment for Healthcare Workers" from NIOSH. In a partnership with California Department of Public Health, NIOSH also developed an online toolkit for respirator program administrators in health care workplaces. 

Thanks to NIOSH for developing these helpful courses, toolkits, and helpful infographics, like the one shown below.

NIOSH N95 Day Infographic (c) NIOSH. 

NIOSH made sure to link to the awesome OSHA training videos on respirator protection.

The Industrious Hygienist looks forward to sharing this exciting new information with health care safety professionals for the next few months.