By Christopher Fulmer, CIT, CHMM, ASP
For many industries and companies, hazardous materials and chemicals are a part of their daily operation.
They use them to make products, develop materials for their clients, conduct cleaning operations, and many other applications. And in most cases, the chemicals and materials pose no significant risk or threat because they are safely stored in their containers or used properly in a well-designed production system. But when a hazardous material or chemical is released from its safe storage either by accident, malfunction, or misuse, then we have a hazardous materials incident, or worse a hazardous materials emergency.
Employees may need to respond to contain the release, protect other employees, initiate a company’s emergency response plan or in some cases, clean up the spill. After the initial release, and the incident or emergency has ceased, it then turns into a hazardous waste clean-up operation. And now employees will be tasked in cleaning up hazardous waste and ensuring proper remediation, packaging, and storage.