Asbestos Issues for Fire Fighters

Weitz & Luxenberg: Asbestos issues for firefighters include toxic exposures

The attorneys at the personal injury law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg have decades of experience defending victim’s rights in practice areas that include: accidents/general injury, dangerous drugs, medical malpractice, and environmental pollutants.

NEWS UPDATE:

In emergency situations, fire fighters often do not know the condition of a building or the potential hazardous materials (like asbestos-covered piping or asbestos insulation) within a building in which the emergency is occurring.

Their main goal is to provide rescue when necessary and to extinguish the fire in a safe manner.

Building owners are often the best sources of information concerning asbestos hazards within their buildings.

Therefore, they, along with employers of potentially exposed employees, are assigned specific duties under the Michigan Occupational Safety & Health Administration asbestos regulations.

To comply with these regulations, a thorough asbestos inspection must be conducted of all pre-1981 building facilities (excluding owner-occupied residential housing).

This survey must identify the presence, location and quantity of asbestos-containing materials (ACM) and/or presumed asbestos-containing materials (PACM) within the building.

So what protection would a fire fighter need to reduce possible exposure to asbestos when working a fire under emergency conditions?

Since asbestos is a hazard by inhalation, the focus must be on donning proper respiratory protection. In other operations where there is potential for exposure to particulates from the structure, MIOSHA recommends no less than a full-face negative pressure respirator.

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