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852 Asbestos Safety
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Employer Responsibilities

Employer Duty to Keep Employees Safe

OSHA's General Duty Clause states employers have a duty to provide a workplace and work that are safe and healthful to their employees. Employers are not supposed to expose employees to airborne asbestos fibers above OSHA's permissible exposure limit (PEL) or excursion limit (EL).

Asbestos Abatement
  • the PEL is 0.1 fiber per cubic centimeter of air averaged over an 8-hour work period, and
  • the EL is 1.0 fiber per cubic centimeter of air as averaged over a sampling period of thirty minutes.

It is important to know the employer must not use employee rotation as a means of compliance with OSHA's PEL or EL limits.

Establish an Asbestos Safety Program

When an employer knows that employees may be exposed to asbestos above the 8-hour PEL or 30-minute EL, it is important they develop and deploy an Asbestos Safety Program. Let's discuss some of the most important components of the Asbestos Safety Program.

Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.

2-1. Employers should not expose employees to airborne asbestos fibers above a PEL of _____ fiber per cubic centimeter of air averaged over an 8-hour work period.