📚 Guide by Safety Mom · Allstar Enviro Safety — The Asbestos Hazard 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 HAZARD AWARENESS COURSE OVERVIEW
Asbestos is a natural, fibrous silicate mineral. Exposure has proven extremely dangerous in the past, as microscopic asbestos fibers, when inhaled, can cause certain types of fatal lung disease.
Over the years, we’ve learned that exposure to asbestos is preventable, but without proper worker training, asbestos will continue to claim lives well into the future. Training provided in this course will help you protect your high-risk workforce from this notorious airborne health hazard.
Upon successful completion of this course, you should have a better understanding of how to:
- Identify workplace conditions that could result in exposure to asbestos
- Identify health effects associated with asbestos exposure, including the relationship between smoking and exposure to asbestos in the development of lung disease
- Identify the control measures and appropriate actions to minimize the possibility of being exposed to or inhaling asbestos fibers
- Identify your rights and responsibilities when working with materials containing asbestos
REGULATIONS
This course was designed to help satisfy requirements of the following regulations:
- OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1001 – Asbestos Standard for General Industry
- OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1101 – Asbestos Standard for the Construction Industry
ASBESTOS HAZARD AWARENESS COURSE TOPICS
- Exposure risks
- Health effects
- Exposure control
- Worker rights and responsibilities
ASBESTOS HAZARD AWARENESS COURSE DURATION: Approximately 22 minutes
ASBESTOS HAZARD AWARENESS COURSE ASSESSMENT: Testing conducted throughout this online course is designed to reinforce the information presented. A mark of 80% must be achieved in order to receive a certificate of completion. Participants are able to repeat the course twice if the pass mark is not achieved.
ASBESTOS HAZARD AWARENESS CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION: Upon successful completion of this online course, a certificate of completion will be available for download and printing.
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 Hazard 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.
