by Keith Barker
The Coast Waste Management Association (CWMA) is an organization dedicated to serving the solid waste industry in coastal British Columbia. This past spring, the organization held a luncheon in Nanaimo, B.C. which included speakers from WorkSafe BC, New West Gypsum, as well as the City of Nanaimo, and Victoria, B.C.-based Ellice Recycle and Hartford Landfill. The session was focused on asbestos in the waste stream, and how it affects those who work in our industry.
Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral which is found in long, thin fibrous crystals. It has great heat resistance, insulating properties, tensile strength, flexibility and chemical resistance, and its use can be traced back over 4,500 years. There are six types of asbestos. Of greatest concern are chrysotile (white asbestos) and amosite (brown asbestos). Chrysotile is the most common type used and accounts for over 90 percent of all asbestos found in modern buildings. Amosite is regarded as the most toxic and is the second most common type of asbestos found in buildings.
The problem with asbestos as it pertains to human health, is that exposure to its fibres is linked to asbestosis, mesothelioma, and lung cancer, all of which usually show up many years after exposure has occurred, and all of which are deadly. The use of asbestos grew greatly during the industrial revolution, especially after 1920, and it’s widespread use in North America did not stop until the early 1980s.
Asbestos is still mined in Canada for export – often to countries where there are little or no safeguards in place for its handling and use. In fact, in June of this year, Canada’s Conservative government decided to join with only four other countries (Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam) to block an international agreement to restrict the sale of chrysotile asbestos.
Asbestos in the workplace
“We are all exposed to some level of asbestos,” said WorkSafe BC’s Karen Kossey, who spoke at the CWMA’s luncheon in April. “There’s an ambient level in the air all the time. It’s relatively low, but we’re always breathing in asbestos fibres.”
“We do not know the level that it takes to harm individuals. All we can do is minimize exposure to as low as possible.”
Kossey explained that in a one-inch cube of asbestos there are approximately 2.56 trillion fibres. The current exposure limit over an eight hour period is 0.1 fibre per cubic centimetre, and she feels this is too high.
When it comes to asbestos containing materials (ACM) entering the waste stream, she said, it turns up mainly through materials produced from renovations and the demolition of structures built prior to 1990. Asbestos is not dangerous until released into the air where it can be breathed in, so when a structure or any portion with ACM is torn down, asbestos is inhaled by anyone in the vicinity of the project. Plus, unless asbestos is cleaned up from a site, it remains indefinitely.
In homes built in Canada prior to the 1990s (some would argue that prior to 1980 is more accurate) asbestos can be found in vermiculite (particularly in older insulation, and specifically that sold as Zonolite), in pipe wrap and boiler/furnace insulation, in cement pipe, textured ceiling, wallboard and siding, flooring (adhesives), in drywall mud / joint filler, roofing shingles, as well as in artificial fire logs, gaskets and a wide range of other spots.
According to Kossey, homeowners, demolition contractors, carpenters and other contractors should be educated about ACM and should be looking for asbestos when working on buildings built prior to 1990. She said that suspect sites should be inspected, and if contaminated, abated by professionals. And recyclers and waste management firms need to be wary of any materials coming in from those sites.
Kossey also pointed to the fact that asbestos exposure is the leading cause of occupational death in Canada, and that more than 50 will die in B.C. this year. Between 2005 and 2009, 258 fatalities were recorded by WorkSafe BC (with a great many estimated to be missing in the reporting.) Additionally she said, there is no cure to asbestos-related illness – there is only prevention.
Kossey went on to say that the best way to protect workers who must be in contact with ACM is through the use of proper respiratory protection (fit-tested masks using P100 cartridges), and to enclose, contain and wet material when encountered. The use of sealants and encapsulants are also recommended, and it is advised that those in proximity to potential ACM should not use high pressure water or air. Of course, educating employees and the general public about the dangers of asbestos and its proper handling are paramount as well.
“There is also a risk of taking asbestos home to families and friends,” she said. “Clothes, hair and vehicles need to be thoroughly decontaminated if they have been exposed.”
WorkSafe BC’s website, similar to other provincial and federal health and safety websites, is a good resource for information about asbestos and how to minimize exposure in the workplace. Visit www.worksafebc.ca, your provincial equivalent, or www.ccohs.ca. Another site recommended by WorkSafe BC is www.hiddenkiller.ca.
Ellice Recycle
Ellice Recycle Ltd. is a member of the Ralmax Group of companies, and is located in Victoria, BC. The company operates a diversion facility (residential and commercial), a commercial recycling yard, bin service and trucking (residential and commercial), and handles non-ferrous metals recycling. Ellice currently handles over 26,000 tonnes of waste materials yearly and boasts an 81 percent waste diversion rate from landfill with material received from residential, commercial and institutional customers.
“When it comes to asbestos, it generally comes to us in the backs of trucks, and in black garbage bags. Our focus is on limiting uncontrolled exposure,” said Gary Bartlett, GM of Ellice Recycle Ltd., and a speaker at CWMA’s April event. “We train our customers. We talk with them about what we don’t want to see in our yard, and what they can do to take care of the issue, including having their sites professionally tested and abated.”
“We train our employees,” continued Bartlett. “We work on asbestos identification. We do ‘show and tell’. If we find anything that has ACM, we’ll bag it and show our employees. And we have rules of action when we find ACM. We also monitor our facilities. We do air quality monitoring, grab samples, and we take all claims of having found ACM very seriously.”
Bartlett said that if asbestos is encountered, the protocol is first and foremost to contain potential ACM exposures by securing the exposure area (using pylons and tape) and to minimize employee/customer exposure. ACM is kept upwind, the area is wetted, contact is made with the source / originator of the material, and a material sample is procured using a trained individual. For cleanup at Ellice, qualified help is used, a “notice of project” is filed, and they follow safe handling/transport protocol as per TDG, packaging, and B.C. Hazardous Waste regulations.)
Bartlett said that room for improvement in the industry lies in better education and awareness for homeowners, contractors and haulers, and reliable demolition/deconstruction permit processes, including consistent inspection report requirements, as well as a requirement process for follow-up assessment to be completed. He said there needs to be better training and certification of asbestos clean-up firms (so that homeowners can more easily determine how to choose a reputable firm) and that there needs to be increased material inspection “at the gate” for ACM.
He added; “We recently found a nifty piece of equipment. It’s a near-infrared detector, like a hand-held gun, that tests for the presence of ACM. If a truckload comes in, we can now shoot it and we know. It cost about $30,000, but it’s worth it.” (Some of the manufacturers who make handheld technology capable of detecting asbestos include Olympus Innov-X, Thermo Scientific, InXitu, and Polychromix.)
“The goal is to keep exposures as low as reasonably possible to keep employees, customers and the general public safe,” concluded Bartlett.
An issue of contention
A material of particular interest when it comes to asbestos containing materials is drywall from demolished structures. Or more accurately, drywall mud or joint compound, which is what can contain asbestos fibres, especially if the drywall was manufactured prior to 1980. New West Gypsum Recycle Ltd. is a specialist recycler based out of Langley, B.C. and has been in the business of recycling gypsum board (drywall) since 1986.
The company’s Glen Hodgins outlined a serious issue at the spring CWMA session that the current system faces when it comes to dealing with asbestos, which is the issue of yards having to turn haulers with ACM away due to current regulations with respect to its handling.
“Every vehicle that comes into our yard, we ask the age of the material, whether it’s new, used, renovation, demolition, and whether proper paperwork has been done,” said Hodgins. “For the most part, we’re not turning people away, we’re trying to educate them as they come in. Once people are turned away from a site, and they start dumping materials in ditches or a vacant lot, now you’re looking at workers from municipalities and others who wouldn’t otherwise be getting exposed, having to deal with it.”
“A lot of people want to do the right thing,” he continued. “But when you tell somebody it won’t just cost them $100 to get rid of their drywall....”
“One prime example I had recently was a hauler of drywall waste to our site in Alberta. He phoned and said; ‘I renovated my house, and I did it the proper way because I know what’s required.’ It cost him $17,000 to renovate the inside of his house, just in terms of abating his ACM. So, that’s a real deterrent for people to try and get rid of materials properly.”
While this particular customer was well informed, Hodgins pointed to the fact that a large percentage are not. He agreed with Gary Bartlett of Ellice and said there needs to be more public and industry education with respect to asbestos and ACM. He also agreed that the general inconsistency in permitting and documentation requirements around ACM are currently serious issues that need to be dealt with.
“When it comes to ACM, we operate according to the 1 percent rule,” said Hodgins. (ACM is designated by WorkSafe BC as anything that contains one percent or more asbestos by weight.)
“With the testing we’ve done, we’ve proven with documentation and paperwork that the asbestos in the joint compound used with drywall is really not that much of an issue. We pulverize stuff. We definitely send it airborne, we do our air quality testing, and we have yet to test positive with drywall.”
Asbestos at the landfill
When ACM is found on any site, whether at a recycle yard, or on a building or other site, it eventually ends up at a landfill. According to Drew Fafford of the Hartland landfill (which serves Victoria, B.C. and Southern Vancouver Island) and who spoke at CWMA’s April luncheon;
“We’re a receiver of asbestos. We accept friable and non-friable asbestos, and consider all of it friable unless it’s been tested to be proven otherwise.” (Friable ACM is that which more easily releases asbestos fibres into the air. Non-friable ACM is that in which the asbestos fibres are bound into a product matrix and so are not easily released into the air.)
“We have procedures in place to handle ACM, to minimize exposure to workers and customers,” he said. Fafford said appointments need to be made 24 hours in advance if ACM is being brought onto their site, so they can prepare to receive it. Strict documentation is required, and the materials are handled by trained employees using high level protective equipment.
In the end, if asbestos containing materials make it to the Hartland landfill, after all the procedures are followed to minimize exposure, they are put into a specially designated trench on the landfill site, wetted, covered and then left alone. And when it comes to a toxic mineral such as asbestos, it is there in the landfill that it remains. Indefinitely.
