• JSHS Capital Project Abatement Information

    Entrance /exit regulations - The crew will build an attached decontainment chamber that leads right to the work area. The “Decon” will consist of a Clean room, Shower room and Equipment room. Each room will be separated by airlocks to ensure no containment of the adjacent room. Crew members will leave their “street clothes” in the clean room and don their PPE (suits, respirators, hard hats) before entering the work area. Upon leaving the work area, crew members will doff their potentially contaminated suits in the equipment room, continue to the shower room to clean themselves of any potential contamination, doff their respirators then continue to the clean room to get back into their “street clothes”

    Project Monitor - A project monitor is to be onsite throughout the duration of the project to ensure that the contractors properly prepare, abate and clean the work area. The project monitor will use NYS code rule 56 as a guideline.

    Air monitoring – Air monitoring will be conducted according to code rule 56 which requires backgrounds (especially in a small, dirty area such as a crawl space) which will give us a guideline of the ambient air quality which the lab will use for the projects samples. We will perform work in progress samples located (at minimum) at the Negative air unit exhausts, decon in/ waste out, 2 critical barriers (windows, grates, ect, which will be layered with poly) and one outside the building or structure as an “ambient” sample.

    Final air samples will be required to be TEM samples due to the fact the project is in a school. While PCM samples typically read any fibers that are within the parameters of “asbestos” size and shape, TEM samples ONLY read asbestos fibers due to the capabilities of the machine that reads the TEM samples. Only after final air samples produce a passing result (indicating a clean work space) will the containment and decontamination chambers be removed.

    Negative pressure – There is a required 8 air changes per hour for all friable asbestos projects such as this. The units will be exhausted OUTSIDE of the building and surrounded by a gate to restrict access. An air sample will be placed at each bank of air exhausts.

    Abatement procedures – The contractor has 2 main options to remove the Asbestos Containing Material.  Either “Wrap and cut” which would require the crew to wrap all the piping in poly and to cut the pipe at each end, removing the pipe in large pieces. The other option would be removal via “Glovebags” which would be placed upon the pipe and sealed air tight before abatement. The removal is performed inside the glovebag and the integrity of the glove bag is not to be compromised an any way, then it tossed into a asbestos waste bag, the bag is cleaned, proper signage is put on bag and bags are placed in waste container once removed from work area. The waste container is then removed from site to a legal disposal facility.