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Permalink Reply by Larry G. Johnson on March 31, 2009 at 2:15pm

The industrial standaed is based upon OSHA standard 1910.12o. That is is the Hazwoper standard.It discuss the four levels of respons training. The NFPA standard in in much more detailthan the OSHA standard.
Both standards use three levels of responder training.Awareness Operations and Technicians.the NFPA standard has greater detailon the skills at the operations and technician level than OSHA

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Permalink Reply by Trainer on March 31, 2009 at 3:14pm

I took the OSHA tec class, what a joke, although it does make a good awareness class, spent 10 min in the level a suite just to make sure we knew how, duration of class was 24hr. In FF tec A class we played football in level A’s and requires 126hrs.

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Permalink Reply by Capt.Jocelyn Chiasson on March 31, 2009 at 3:17pm

thanks alot for this information really helpfull.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on March 31, 2009 at 8:07pm

The NFPA Hazardous Materials standards are 471 and 472. 472 is the Professional Qualifications for Responders to Hazmat Incidents.

Two primary differences between the OSHA/HAZWOPER minimum standard hazmat tech class and the NFPA class is that the OSHA standard is oriented strictly for industrial or transport hazmat teams and hazardous waste site operations, while the NFPA standard includes WMD/terrorism response and medical considerations, and much more emphasis on different scientific monitoring instruments and how to use them.

The industrial standard can be found at: http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STAND...

The NFPA standards are at: http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STAND... for 471 and http://www.nfpa.org/aboutthecodes/AboutTheCodes.asp?DocNum=472 for 472.

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Permalink Reply by Capt.Jocelyn Chiasson on March 31, 2009 at 8:43pm

Thank you very much Ben!! this information is very helpfull the dept. then i'm with just put up the hazmat team about 3 years ago. So we pretty new at this with 8 or 9 hazmat call since so all information then i can found and share with my team is very appreciated .
thank you!!!

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on March 31, 2009 at 8:48pm

Good luck, and remember that "Zipping into a Level A suit, even for training, is a life-threatening event." Dr. Kramer, PhD, Tennessee Emergency Management Agency H.A.R.M. instructor, 1988.

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Permalink Reply by Trainer on April 1, 2009 at 8:21am

2 of the many things I learned from Anniston was always have, inside your suite, a small towel and a knife.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on April 1, 2009 at 7:48pm

I've always done the same, especially since I saw the early 1980's video of the hazmat tech who was working atop a leaking anhydrous ammonia rail car. He stepped in front of the leak, the cold vapor froze his suit leg, and the suit split along the seam. His suit then filled up with anhdrous ammonia vapor. He bailed off the rail car and RAN to decon. After that, I figured that I needed to be able to cut myself out of the suit if the inside of the suit became more dangerous than the outside.

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