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Tight schedule for province-wide asbestos inventory
June, 2004
By Barbara Carss
Intensified Scrutiny of Non-Friable Materials Brings New Costs
Workers in full HAZMAT gear turned a recent energy retrofit into a delicate communications exercise for property managers with Peel Region’s non-profit housing corporation, Peel Living. The $1.2-million project to convert an electrically heated, 140-unit seniors’ housing complex to central natural gas heating began just after Ontario’s new asbestos Regulation under the Occupational Health & Safety Act came into effect in November 2005. This compelled more stringent than anticipated controls for the work, which involved drilling through flooring and ceilings that contain asbestos.
“It stalled our project and it created all kinds of confusion. It increased costs. There were delays. There was a lot of communication required to address the residents’ concerns and concerns from their family members,” recounts Glen O’Brecht, director of property management, Peel Region. “Asbestos is a loaded word. No matter how well you explain it, not everyone gets it. It’s a very emotional term.”
A number of key elements must be in place to facilitate sound management, starting with the composition of the condominium board. While there is legislation describing the qualifications of condo directors, it remains important to ensure that adequate financial skills reside on the board since it has overall responsibility for the property which can be worth millions of dollars. These skills include at least a basic understanding of financial statements, investment management and borrowing. The ideal situation is to have at least one director who is professionally involved in banking or investment management and is able to offer insight into financial matters which boards may regularly face.
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The new Regulation will drive up costs for diligence, maintenance, retrofits/renovations and demolition in many situations.
The previous version of the Regulation, which dated back to the 1980s, focused primarily on what are known as friable forms of asbestos that can become airborne and inhaled, whereas the new Regulation mandates greater scrutiny and precautions for so-called non-friable products in which asbestos fibres are embedded and immobile. This encompasses items and materials that can be found in almost any building constructed before 1990, including vinyl asbestos floor tiles, flooring glue, ceiling stipple, drywall joint filling compound, roofing membranes and transite cement. Indeed, transite cement products such as piping used as rainwater leaders have never been banned and are still being installed today.
Most conditions of O. Reg 278/05 came into effect in November 2005, but it gave owners of commercial, industrial, institutional and multi-residential buildings with four or more units a two-year window to complete a compulsory survey and management plan for all building materials that contain asbestos. As the Nov. 1, 2007 deadline for completing these surveys and plans draws nearer, industry specialists report that compliance levels are still low – in part because of a limited pool of professionals to carry out the work, and in part due to ignorance.
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“In practice, you can imagine the impossibility of surveying every single building in Ontario in a two-year period,” says Don Pinchin, president, Pinchin Environmental Inc., one of the most active consulting firms in the field. “There’s also the fact that many building owners are totally unaware of this.”
Practical challenges
The experts emphasize that the previous asbestos Regulation did need to be updated. It was out of sync with Ontario’s occupational exposure limit (OEL) for asbestos, which, in 2000, had been reduced below the level stated in the Regulation. Nor did it recognize new technologies and procedures for asbestos abatement and management that had been developed in the 20-year interim since the Regulation was introduced.
Yet, many of the same experts maintain that some of the new stipulations are overzealous. In particular, they question why certain non-friable products have now been designated for “Type 2” removal procedures that are more complex and costly than the handling practices that were formerly allowed. Pinchin argues, for example, that vinyl asbestos floor tiles break cleanly and abatement can be carried out effectively with the less onerous “Type 1” precautions, while drywall joint filling compound contains such trace amounts of asbestos as to pose negligible risk.
“Drywall joint filling compound is going to be a nightmare,” observes Corrado Maltese, senior manager, Occupational Health & Safety, with the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB). “The joint filling compound is something that wasn’t really a concern previously. Now, if we need to nail something in the wall – even something as simple as that – we need to know if we’re going to be disturbing asbestos.”
Since sections of drywall are often replaced during building renovations, walls can become a patchwork of drywall vintages that make it difficult to gauge where joint filling compound containing asbestos – which was formally banned in 1986 – might be. This is one of the reasons the cost of asbestos management surveys is rising. “The level of effort to distinguish what is and isn’t asbestos drywall has significantly increased,” says Jason McGonigle, health and safety group manager with the environmental consulting firm, Golder Associates.
Previously, even if building owners voluntarily opted to identify the non-friable sources of asbestos on the premises, they typically relied on an environmental consultant’s professional judgement to deduce its location. Although the former Regulation did require scientific sampling for friable asbestos, the new Regulation is more comprehensive.
Notification responsibility
Nov. 1, 2007 is also the deadline for notifying occupiers of a building of the presence of asbestos on the premises. Building owners must notify residents and/or commercial tenants in writing, and, in turn, these occupiers must inform employees, contractors and/or visitors who could potentially encounter and disturb asbestos.
Cost repercussions
More stringent controls for handling non-friable materials are already increasing renovation/retrofit and demolition costs. The new Regulation also introduces training requirements for workers and supervisors on “Type 3” abatement jobs, involving friable materials, which could affect project budgets.
As of November 2007, workers will have to prove that they have successfully completed a 16-hour classroom course (or recognized equivalent) and exam, and employers will be responsible for ensuring workers have the necessary training. Consultants foresee employee retention challenges that could create delays and/or work stoppages.
“Most owners can’t even conceive of the amount of turnover they are going to have [on their jobsites] because the work is very unpleasant,” Pinchin advises. “I think it is likely going to push up the wage rates that these jobs are paid.”
In the recent retrofit at the seniors’ apartment tower, workers had to drill through asbestos vinyl floor tiles and asbestos ceiling stipple to make way for the piping and fan coils that were to replace electric baseboard heaters. Residents spent time in the building’s recreation lounge while construction occurred in their units.
“We are in the midst of big capital renovation work. We have about 13 buildings that operate on electric baseboards,” O’Brecht notes. “It [the Regulation] will increase the project costs; it will add additional steps to the work; and, certainly, there is a resident impact. If the payback was less, but we triggered the highest level of hazardous material handling requirements, I think we would have to reassess the costs and benefits.”
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