HAZWOPER Safety: Decontamination and Best Practices Training Course

A truck transporting hazardous waste has overturned on the road, resulting in a chemical spill. As the driver, your head starts to spin. What should you do? What steps must be followed? Do you need special personal protective equipment (PPE) before cleaning it up, and how do you protect others from the spill? Once exposed, how does the process of decontamination work? These are all questions you should and would be asking if there was an uncontrolled release of a hazardous material. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) regulations and training to prepare you for this unexpected situation. In addition to OSHA, the EPA monitors all hazardous waste from beginning to end via the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).  

Both OSHA and the EPA provide clear rules and regulations on how to protect workers from exposure to hazardous materials in the workplace (29 CFR 1910.120; 29 CFR 1926.65; 29 CFR 1910/38(a); 40 CFR Parts 263-279; and other related standards). These standards require that all employees be trained appropriately on effective decontamination methods and best practices for controlling exposure to hazardous waste.  

Understanding how to handle an uncontrolled, unexpected release of hazardous material, the types of decontamination methods available, and working to minimize exposure are essential to keeping the work environment safe. This course will discuss the best practices and standard operating procedures used to control exposure to hazardous waste properly. This course will also review HAZMAT levels and the proper donning and doffing of PPE. Finally, what decontamination is, the methods used to remove contaminants, and how to determine if the method was successful will be discussed. If you need to learn more about HAZWOPER safety related to effective decontamination methods and best practices, this training is for you!

This program is available with closed captions in Spanish and French.