SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

Hazardous Materials Technicians are personnel who respond to the release of hazardous materials with the purpose of stopping the release and reducing losses. This course provides classroom instruction and practical field exercises to enhance overall safety and effectiveness.

Signet's Hazmat Technician core course is specifically designed to bring students from a knowledge base of zero to Hazmat Technician. Customization fully alows for more extensive coverage of any subject matter area, depending on the previous experience of individual customers. To this end, this course overview contains the ENTIRE Hazardous Materials Technician curriculum.  Certain aspects may be deleted from this curriculum at any time for specific customer applicability, providing that any changes do not detract from personnel meeting minimum federal standards, specifically, United States OSHA 29CFR 1910.120(q)(6).  These regulations allow for some degree of flexibility to meet the requirements of this section.  Modifications will of course affect the timeframe of each course, although we highly recommend a minimum of 40 contact hours, with ideally 80 hours for much more comprehensive subject area coverage. NFPA 472 Chapter 6 standard will also be addressed, although complete comprehensive coverage of the entire NFPA training standard in a single 40 or 80-hour class is extremely difficult, if not altogether impossible to achieve effectively. 

Signet North America also utilizes each customer’s specific equipment to the greatest extent possible, including PPE, monitoring, decontamination, reference materials, etc. for training, as we feel that it is important to train on the equipment one has in order to discover and understand uses, identify strengths and shortcomings, and address each of these in order to do everything possible to ensure a stronger, more competent organization at the conclusion of the educational experience.

GOALS:

The goal of this course (both the 40 hour and the 80 hour version) is to bring personnel to, at a minimum, the recognized United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Hazardous Materials First Responder Technician Training Level (1910.120(q)(6)(i)).  Per this legislation, first responders at the technician level are individuals who “respond to releases or potential releases for the purpose of stopping the release. They assume a more aggressive role than a first responder at the operations level in that they will approach the point of release in order to plug, patch or otherwise stop the release of a hazardous substance. Hazardous materials technicians shall have received at least 24 hours of training equal to the first responder operations level and in addition have competency in the following areas…:”

• 1910.120(q)(6)(iii)(A)
  Know how to implement the employer's emergency response plan.
• 1910.120(q)(6)(iii)(B)
• Know the classification, identification and verification of known and unknown materials by using field survey instruments and equipment.
• 1910.120(q)(6)(iii)(C)
  Be able to function within an assigned role in the Incident Command System.
• 1910.120(q)(6)(iii)(D)
  Know how to select and use proper specialized chemical personal protective equipment provided to the hazardous materials technician.
• 1910.120(q)(6)(iii)(E)
  Understand hazard and risk assessment techniques.
• 1910.120(q)(6)(iii)(F)Be able to perform advance control, containment, and/or confinement operations within the capabilities of the resources and personal protective equipment available with the unit.
• 1910.120(q)(6)(iii)(G)
  Understand and implement decontamination procedures.
• 1910.120(q)(6)(iii)(H)
  Understand termination procedures.
• 1910.120(q)(6)(iii)(I)
  Understand basic chemical and toxicological terminology and behavior.

Topics discussed will include, but not be limited to:

• Hazmat Chemistry
• Information Sources
• Respiratory Protection
• Chemical Protective Clothing
• Air Monitoring
• Railroad Response and Operations
• Highway Cargo Tanks
• Non-Bulk and Intermodal Tanks
• Confinement of Spills & Containment
• Vapor Suppression
• Pipelines & Fixed Facility Storage Tanks
• Incident Command System
• Decontamination
• Full-Scale customized response exercises

PREREQUISITES:

None Required, as Signet's Hazmat Technician core course is specifically designed to bring students from a knowledge base of zero to Hazmat Technician. Customization fully alows for more extensive coverage of any subject matter area.