Early on in my post college years, I worked as an environmental scientist for a consulting firm. As a young environmental scientist I spent approximately half my time on-site completing field activities and half my time in the office writing reports. In addition to completing HAZWOPER (Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response) training required to work on contaminated sites, I was also a trained and licensed asbestos inspector and project monitor.
A contaminated site can be as “simple” as a fifty year old building undergoing restoration or as complicated as the reclaiming of an industrial brownfield, abandoned to stew in its own unique mixture of toxic decay. Each site requires a team of specialists differing depending on the nature of the contamination, but a “typical” cleanup could involve environmental scientists and field techs, drillers, inspectors, abatement workers, truck & heavy equipment drivers, tank excavators, construction workers and let’s not forget the lab techs who actually analyze the samples collected. OSHA and corporate Health & Safety Officers work vigilantly to ensure the safety of hazardous waste workers, but someone must be the first to face the contamination.
Take an abandoned industrial site. Environmental professionals will perform all due diligence possible to determine what type of chemicals and materials were used at the facility before sampling. But, the time will come when a field tech or environmental scientist will walk onto the site and began to collect soil, water, air, and unidentified substance samples. However, until the samples are actually analyzed, no one knows for certain what they contain, therefore making it very difficult to properly protect the person collecting the samples. Yes, there are gloves, respirators, and protective suits but each type protects workers from a different assortment of hazardous materials. Use the wrong set of gloves or respirator cartridge and you may as well use nothing.
Take a LUST (leaking underground storage tank) removal. LUSTs release an amazing variety of hazardous compounds into the soil and water tables around them. Excavating any type of LUST or UST is hazardous work. Excavating a gasoline tank takes on an entirely different level of tension. In addition to the obvious danger of explosion, tank removal workers specially trained in working in confined spaces may need to enter the pit or tank once it has been “cleaned”. According to the State of Oklahoma UST Removal Guidebook, excavation workers have a 112% higher death rate than general construction workers.
Take an asbestos abatement project. Asbestos abatement workers don respirators and protective suits to reduce the risk of breathing in the tiny fibers that destroy lungs. But asbestos removal professionals work day in and day out, chipping, pulling, breaking, and smashing materials that encapsulate these dangerous fibers, thus releasing asbestos into the air around them. That air is of course is monitored, filtered, ventilated and confined to a plastic and duct taped space, but would you be willing to step in there to help rid yet another building of this cancer causing agent?
Being green is more than talking about how we all need to make our lives environmentally friendly by driving less, eating organically, freecycling, and cleaning with vinegar. Being green is taking action to restore what has been damaged. For all of those out there voicing the environmental damage facing us, please remember the green collar workers who are literally putting their health and safety on the line in order to turn brown places green again. They are the unsung heroes of the environmental movement.
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