A materials technician removes and disposes of hazardous materials, including asbestos, lead, mold, and nuclear waste. They must identify four factors to classify a material as hazardous and wear protective equipment when inspecting buildings. Specializations include asbestos identification, emergency response, and decontamination. On-the-job training is necessary, and licensing requires at least 40 hours of training. OSHA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulate the handling of hazardous materials.
A materials technician is a person who determines, removes and disposes of harmful materials and substances. Other terms for this position include hazardous materials technician and hazardous materials removal worker. One of the most common hazardous materials a technician may encounter is asbestos. This is a material used in abundance in building construction for most of the 20th century, which has fibers that can cause a type of cancer called mesothelioma, as well as a type of inflammatory disease called asbestosis. Other hazardous materials that a materials technician can remove include lead, arsenic, mold, mercury, noxious gases, airborne particles, and nuclear and radioactive waste.
There are four factors a materials technician must identify about a material to classify it as hazardous: it catches fire easily, deteriorates, undergoes a chemical reaction, or becomes toxic. Any one of these four characteristics can cause harm to public health. When inspecting buildings or structures, materials technicians should wear protective equipment such as goggles or safety glasses, gloves, coveralls, hard hat or hard hat, respirators or face shields, and chemical resistant clothing. Tools used to remove hazardous materials include scrapers, vacuums, water sprayers and sand blasters.
There are several specializations in the field of materials technician. There are workers who focus on asbestos identification and disposal. Others act as emergency and disaster response workers, cleaning up hazardous particles or components at accident scenes. Decontamination workers specialize in the removal of radioactive and nuclear waste from nuclear facilities and power plants, as well as the decontamination of the entire affected area.
Becoming a materials technician usually doesn’t require a formal education beyond a high school diploma or general equivalency diploma (GED). There are certain government standards at the federal, state, and local levels that make on-the-job training necessary. These standards may vary, however, across government levels and expertise.
In the United States, aspiring materials technicians must have at least 40 hours of on-the-job training to be licensed. The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the arm of the Department of Labor that creates and enforces standards related to safety in the workplace, includes a training program to handle the most common hazardous materials such as asbestos and lead. . The Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulates the handling of nuclear waste. Other materials, such as mold, are left to the regulatory power of state governments.
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