📚 Guide by Safety Mom · Allstar Enviro Safety — The Asbestos Awareness is an online workplace safety course delivered by Safety Mom · Allstar Enviro Safety, Calgary’s Energy Safety Canada Authorized Training Provider. Self-paced, mobile-friendly, same-day certificate upon exam completion. Available across Canada.
🔗 Related Safety Mom courses & guides: H2S Alive Calgary · Standard First Aid Calgary · Oil Sands Safety Certs · Instructor: Arliss Levine, CRSP, CHSC
ASBESTOS AWARENESS ONLINE COURSE OVERVIEW
Asbestos awareness reflects the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations that requires all employees who could come into contact with materials that might contain asbestos be given appropriate training on working safely in these situations.
This course was created to educate employees about the respiratory and carcinogenic dangers of working with materials that may contain asbestos.
ASBESTOS AWARENESS ONLINE COURSE TOPICS
- Hazards of asbestos in industry
- Asbestos Standards
- chemical Composition and nature of asbestos
- Forms of materials that may contain asbestos, and where they are encountered
- Imperative ways to protect yourself when disturbing a material that may contain asbestos
- Air quality monitoring and decontamination
ASBESTOS AWARENESS ONLINE COURSE DURATION:Â Approximately 30 minutes in length
ASBESTOS AWARENESS TEST: Testing conducted in this online Asbestos Awareness course is designed to reinforce the information in this e learning seminar. A mark of 80% must be achieved in order to receive a certificate . Participants are able to repeat the course twice if the pass mark is not achieved in order to be certified.
ASBESTOS AWARENESS ONLINE COURSE PREVIEW:
Additional Safety Knowledge
Chemical Hazard Classification in Canada
Under WHMIS 2015 aligned with the Globally Harmonised System (GHS), chemicals are classified into physical hazards (16 classes including flammability, oxidising, explosive, gases under pressure) and health hazards (10 classes including acute toxicity, skin corrosion, carcinogenicity, reproductive toxicity, specific target organ toxicity). Each class has categories (1 = most severe, 4 or 5 = least severe) that determine label pictograms and signal words.
Occupational Exposure Limits in Alberta
Alberta OHS Schedule 1 lists Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs) for over 700 hazardous substances. Each substance has:
- 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA): the average concentration over an 8-hour shift.
- Short-term exposure limit (STEL): the maximum 15-minute average.
- Ceiling limit: concentration that must never be exceeded even briefly.
Some substances also carry a Skin (S) notation indicating dermal absorption risk, or a Sensitiser (Sen) notation. Compliance requires air monitoring, engineering controls, administrative controls, and PPE.
The Hierarchy of Chemical Controls
Alberta OHS Code requires controls in this priority order: (1) elimination or substitution — use a less hazardous product; (2) engineering controls — ventilation, enclosure, process modification; (3) administrative controls — work procedures, training, rotation; (4) personal protective equipment — respirators, gloves, chemical suits. PPE alone is not adequate compliance where higher-order controls are practicable.
Asbestos Awareness — Emergency Preparedness
Every workplace handling chemicals must have accessible Safety Data Sheets, spill response equipment matched to the products in use, eyewash and safety showers where corrosives are handled (within 10 metres of the hazard, delivering 1.5 gallons per minute for 15 minutes minimum per ANSI Z358.1), and trained personnel available on every shift. Fire departments and mutual aid partners should be informed of chemicals stored on-site above regulated quantities.
Content reviewed by Arliss Levine, CRSP, CHSC — lead safety instructor at Safety Mom · Allstar Enviro Safety Calgary, an Energy Safety Canada Authorized Training Provider.
