How to Deal with Asbestos Exposure in your Workplace – Advice for Industrial Building Owners

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Jeff Mahoney

{Part three of a three-part series}

Building owners play one of the primary roles in preventing asbestos exposure at the workplace. When constructing a building – or leasing out an existing facility that contains asbestos – building owners can take several steps that ensure safety on the premesis.

Only purchase asbestos-free building materials for renovations or new construction. Despite its known health hazards, asbestos materials are still being produced. In 2004, the United States used more than 3,000 metric tons of asbestos for roofing products, coatings and compounds and other industrial applications. Facility managers must specify that they want asbestos-free materials when placing or approving orders for building materials. Be sure to verify manufacturer’s certifications before making the purchase.

Schedule asbestos surveys for your properties. To best protect the workers in the building, owners must schedule a comprehensive building survey from a licensed asbestos abatement company. This survey will indicate where asbestos is present and which products need to be immediately addressed. As a facility owner, you should verify the conditions listed by the abatement company’s report. Also remember to schedule regular follow-up inspections every six months from the date of the original inspection.

Develop and implement an asbestos management program for each building. Owners must draft a thorough asbestos management plan that outlines their method of addressing asbestos-containing materials on their property. The policies should be as specific to the facility as possible, and should include information about:

Which items in your building contain asbestos
How you will notify employees and building occupants of the asbestos
How you will train building occupants to avoid damaging asbestos-containing materials
How you plan to address asbestos emergencies in your building
Which work permits are necessary when asbestos in the building may be disturbed
Which work practices will be enforced to reduce the likelihood of asbestos exposure

Building owners may wish to hire a program development team to help construct the asbestos management plan. Maintenance and custodial staff, engineers, health and safety officials and industrial hygiene personnel can all contribute to the plan. Managers from the company that will occupy the building may also be involved.

Clearly label any materials in the building that you know contain asbestos. Asbestos-containing materials must be clearly labeled with warning signs. These signs should be placed on the materials themselves. Caution signs indicating the presence of asbestos should also be posted at the entrance for any area where asbestos products have been identified.

Provide your contact information to all the building residents. In the event that an asbestos-containing product in your building is disturbed, the occupants will need to contact you. Provide contact cards with your name, location, phone number and email address to the management of the company who occupies your building.

These steps can help reduce the likelihood that any industrial employees who work in or on your buildings are exposed to asbestos. In the event that an asbestos emergency arises in one of your properties, immediately contact OSHA at (800) 321-OSHA (6742).

This Intelex Guest Blog is the concluding post in a three-part series. Faith Franz is a writer for the Mesothelioma Center. She combines her interests in whole-body health and medical research to educate the mesothelioma community about the newest developments in cancer care.

How to Deal with Asbestos Exposure in Your Workplace: Advice for Managers

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Jeff Mahoney

{Part two of a three-part series}

Industrial mangers are faced with hundreds of responsibilities each day. Ensuring worker safety should be at the top of their priority list – especially when it comes to asbestos.

Do you work in management at a construction site or industrial occupation? Here’s what you can do to promote asbestos safety:

Conduct daily or periodic monitoring. Unless a manager can demonstrate that asbestos exposure at the worksite will remain below the permissible limit, they are required to perform daily monitoring for worksites where asbestos-containing materials are directly involved. Managers must perform periodic monitoring (at intervals determined by state legislature) for workers who perform other industrial operations that pose a risk for asbestos exposure.

Create controlled zones. Regulated areas must be created and thoroughly enforced wherever asbestos work is performed. Mangers must prohibit workers from entering without appropriate licensure or respiratory protection. Managers must also keep workers from doing any of the following within a controlled zone:

Eating
Drinking
Smoking or chewing tobacco
Chewing gum
Applying cosmetics

These areas must be clearly labeled as regulated areas.

Provide the required protective equipment and safety training. Employers are required to provide and enforce the use of respirators, coveralls, head and foot coverings and gloves when asbestos work is performed. OSHA standard CFR 1910.134 can be used to determine which sort of gear is necessary. This protective gear can only be given to workers who have undergone respirator training.

Additionally, employers must enroll workers who handle asbestos in the required asbestos licensure classes (and refresher courses) through an accredited training company. Check your local laws for information about industrial asbestos training.

Provide appropriate medical examinations. Managers at construction sites and shipyards must provide medical examinations for workers who spend 30 days or more each year with Class I, II, or III asbestos work. Managers at any other site are required to provide medical examinations to all workers who are exposed to asbestos above the PEL.

Keep thorough records. In the event of legal action, managers must be able to provide records of asbestos monitoring, employee medical records and licensure training records. Keep records of exposure monitoring and physician’s evaluations for each employee for at least 30 years. Keep training records for at least one year.

This Intelex Guest Blog is part two of a three-part series. Faith Franz is a writer for the Mesothelioma Center. She combines her interests in whole-body health and medical research to educate the mesothelioma community about the newest developments in cancer care.

How to hire a great product manager

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Faith Franz

After writing my last two posts about great product managers and career paths to become great product managers, I thought I should write a post for all the employers (like myself) that are looking to hire great product managers. Probably more so than any other role, identifying and hiring a great product manager is very challenging. Since the job requires a breadth of knowledge to be successful, the interview process requires a breadth of questions to be asked to get feel for whether or not the candidate will be successful.

So what specifically do I focus on trying to understand when I interview a product management candidate? There are a few key items, and I’ve outlined them below.

Are They Wicked Smart?

To me this is the most important thing. If they’re not wicked smart, I won’t even consider them. Since product managers are faced with an endless amount of decisions, a great one needs to be able to think quickly and analytically to provide well thought out answers to questions posed by developers, sales reps, marketers, account managers, etc. Every decision they make could have a butterfly effect down the road, so raw intelligence is a requirement to understand what the consequences of their decisions could be.

So how do you test to see if someone is wicked smart? Often times you can get a feel for it in the interview process or by looking at the candidate’s credentials (i.e. advanced degree, top school, high-profile jobs, etc.) However, I also like to pose brain-teasers too to see how a candidate breaks down a problem and tries to solve it. If you need some brain teasers to use in your interviews, do a quick search on Google and you’ll find numerous questions and answers for great brain teasers that are used by Google and Microsoft during their interviews for product managers and developers.

Have They Successfully Shipped Something Before?

I’m sure you’d never hire a developer unless they’ve written code before, so why would you hire a product manager if they haven’t shipped something before? Only those that have successfully shipped a product before truly understand how complex a process this is, it requires the coordination of many activities and the cooperation of all parts of the business, lead by the product manager.

By simply asking a candidate to walk you through the process they followed when shipping a product they led from concept to launch and beyond, you can get a solid feel for their selflessness, attitude, curiosity, persuasiveness, communication skills, product instincts and desire to completely own a product.

Do They Have a Strong Technical Background?

A great product manager needs to be able to talk shop with the developers they are leading. If they can’t do this, they won’t be respected and won’t be successful. It’s that simple.

Since the amount of technical experience required varies from product to product, it’s hard to recommend specific questions that should be asked. However, you should be asking your product management candidates some of the same technical questions you’d ask your developers to see if they’ll be able to talk shop.

Do They Have Great Product Instincts?

I touched on it earlier, but having great product instincts is another essential attribute of a great product manager. That said, assessing whether or not somebody has great product instincts is very subjective and many interviewers have a difficult time trying to evaluate this attribute.

So what questions should you ask to poke at a candidates product instincts? I recommend general, open-ended questions like the following:

How do you know a product is designed well?
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in the design of a product?
What’s a great product that you’ve recently tried? Why do you like it? What is the biggest issue with it?

By posing questions like these, and other similar ones, you’ll get a feel for the candidates products instincts pretty quickly.

Are They a Leader?

In order for a product manager to highly successful, they have to be leader. They need to be convincing and have the ability to lead a diverse group of people as they ship a product.

Identifying a great leader is relatively easy during an interview process as the great ones naturally convey their great leadership abilities through their confidence, effective communication and persuasiveness. That said, there are many questions you can ask to poke at a persons leadership ability. One of the best lists of questions I’ve seen is in this post on the blog of Michael Hyatt, Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Conclusion

Hiring a great product manager is hard! That said, if you use the guidelines above, identifying and hiring a great one for your organization will be easier than ever before.

Robin Dindayal is the VP of Product management at Intelex Technologies. This post was originally published on his blog, Notes from the Product Management Trenches.

How to deal with asbestos exposure in your workplace: advice for industrial workers

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Jeff Mahoney

At one point, more than 75 different industries exposed workers to asbestos. Even though these industries have been made safer by regulations from the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety, many workers still come in contact with asbestos products that remain at their jobsites.

Although most industrial employees face some form of asbestos exposure risks during their career, employees most at risk for asbestos exposure include:

Construction workers.
HVAC mechanics.
Electricians.
Chemical plant workers.

Do you work in one of these industrial occupations where asbestos exposure is still a risk? The following tips can help reduce the risk of you or your coworkers being exposed to asbestos and becoming at risk for an asbestos-causing cancer.

Know which materials pose an asbestos threat – and know how to handle them. More than 3,000 industrial products were once made with asbestos. Many of these are still present in jobsites. Tiles, pipes, cement and insulation are some of the most common, yet nearly any material installed before the 1980s can contain asbestos.

Asbestos may be visible in some older products that are in poor condition, but the fibers are rarely visible to the naked eye. Building owners are now required to put warning labels on products that they know contain asbestos, yet older products may still be unlabeled. Ask your manager or building owner for a full list of asbestos-containing products on the premises.

As long as these products remain intact, they do not pose a health threat. However, the rough nature of most industrial activities can easily damage the product and release asbestos into the air. Do not chip, scrape, saw or drill any products that may contain asbestos without following appropriate procedures. If you find a product that you think might contain asbestos, leave it alone and report it to a supervisor.

Refuse any assignments that you are not licensed for. Only workers with asbestos licensure can perform asbestos work. Employers are responsible for providing this training. If your supervisor assigns you to a project that requires asbestos certifications that you do not have, do not perform the project until they provide you with the necessary training.

Wear protective gear when working with asbestos – and leave it at the worksite. Your employer is also required to provide you with protective gear anytime you enter an area where asbestos work is being performed. Do not begin any asbestos work without a full safety suit (including coveralls, gloves, shoes and a respirator). Once your work is done for the day, change out of your protective gear and leave the gear at the worksite overnight. Shower to remove any remaining asbestos fibers before going home.

Properly dispose of asbestos waste. Waste should be placed into a 60”-by-60” waste bag and brought to a landfill that accepts asbestos waste. If the waste does not fit into one bag, alert your supervisor so that an accredited asbestos professional can be contacted to come remove the material. After debris has been addressed, the area must be thoroughly cleaned with a vacuum that is equipped with a HEPA filter. Do NOT use dry mops, brooms, dust cloths or standard vacuums to clean up asbestos waste remnants.

When in doubt, refer to OSHA standards. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration developed three standards to protect workers who may be exposed to asbestos. Construction workers are covered by 29 CFR 1926.1101. Shipyard workers are covered by 29 CFR 1915.1001. Workers in any other industry are covered by 29 CFR 1910.1001. If you have any questions about employee protections your industry is covered by, refer to the OSHA standards for your trade.

Know when to speak up. If management is not appropriately handling asbestos in the workplace, workers can file a complaint online at OSHA’s website or by calling (800) 321-OSHA (6742). The hotline should also be called for any asbestos-related emergency.

Alert your doctor. Even though your employer is required to provide you with health screenings, you should still tell your health care provider that you work in an occupation where asbestos exposure is a threat. Your doctor can help you schedule routine asbestos-related disease screenings to detect any illnesses that might arise even after you leave your current place of employment. Most of these illnesses do not arise for several decades after asbestos exposure occurs. Letting your doctor know about this exposure now can help your medical team keep their eye on your health for problems that might develop in the future.

This Intelex Guest Blog is part one of a three-part series. Faith Franz is a writer for the Mesothelioma Center. She combines her interests in whole-body health and medical research to educate the mesothelioma community about the newest developments in cancer care.

Intelex featured in Quality Magazine’s 2011 How-To Guide

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Paul Leavoy

Here on the Intelex Blog, we love to preach the benefits of ISO 9001 certification, and how the right software solutions help facilitate fast, stress-free conformance.

Those interested in learning more about how to achieve ISO 9001 certification are encouraged to check out the latest edition of Quality Magazine’s handy annual How To Guide.

Head over to Quality Magazine’s website to view the latest issue of Quality Magazine. Click on the “How To” tab on the right and – in addition to reading the rest of the valuable magazine and guide – go to page 19 to read “How to Ensure Effortless, Ongoing ISO 9001 Certification and Perpetual Audit Preparedness” to learn, well, just that!