Waste & RecyclingThe supervisor checks that decontamination works
The site safety and health supervisor monitors the decontamination procedures to see whether they work and, when they do not, takes the steps to correct them. You play the supervisor: you watch the line, evaluate the methods so re-used gear exposes no one, and bring what you find back into the plan and the training. It follows paragraphs (k)(2)(iv) and (b)(4)(iv) of the federal HAZWOPER rule.
Free to startScenarios
- A routine check of the decontamination line during a shift.
- The procedure is found ineffective, and it is corrected.
- Reusable protective equipment goes back into service after decontamination.
- An incident on the site becomes a training example in the yearly refresher.
The steps
- As site safety and health supervisor, use your responsibility and authority to carry out the site safety and health plan and verify compliance.
- Monitor the decontamination procedures to determine their effectiveness.
- Evaluate the decontamination methods so workers are not exposed by re-using protective equipment.
- When a procedure is found ineffective, take the steps to correct its deficiencies.
- Inspect, as necessary, how well the site safety and health plan works.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the protective equipment program.
- Investigate accidents, injuries and illnesses on the site so they do not happen again, and use employee suggestions and complaints as feedback.
- Bring the review of the past year's incidents into the yearly refresher training as training examples.
Safety rules that stop the station
- A decontamination procedure found ineffective is not left as it is: its deficiencies are corrected.
To pass
- Decontamination procedures monitored for effectiveness and their deficiencies corrected.
- Deficiencies in the site safety and health plan corrected by the employer.
- Supervisors: 40 hours, 3 field days and at least 8 hours of specialized training at the time of job assignment, and 8 hours of refresher every year.
Official source
29 CFR 1910.120, Hazardous waste operations and emergency response (HAZWOPER)
GovInfo publishes 29 CFR 1910.120 free: paragraph (k)(2)(iv) gives the site safety and health supervisor the check of decontamination and (b)(4)(iv) the inspections of the plan.
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