Understanding the HAZWOPER Standard Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response protocols, often referred to as HAZWOPER, are a set of standards for dealing with projects involving the cleanup of toxic waste. HAZWOPER requires companies to follow a strict set of health and safety requirements when responding to spillage emergencies or dealing with toxic cleanups.

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facility. The third category is reserved for emergency
response, for example a chemical plant spill, or a spill in
transport (such as a ship or truck tank spill).Prevention
In Practice
Applying HAZWOPER to any of your own operations
which fall into the aforementioned categories requires
that you do so under a written safety and health
program. Your procedures for controlling and cleaning
up a hazarwdous waste substance must be written with
specific detail to your own facilities and operations, and
you should have a different version for each possible
site within your business or operation. In this way,
HAZWOPER provides a framework to employers and a
promise of safety to employees, but leaves the specifics up
to you – which is generally appropriate given how varied
hazardous waste operations can be.
The following steps can help you as you navigate
the creation and execution of an OSHA compliant
HAZWOPER program.
1. Detailed writing. Write your plan and make
sure that it hits on all of the points in the
above paragraph – namely that it is specific to
each possible application.
2. Distribute the plan to any and all employees
and independent contractors who will be on
the site. If not directly distributed, make sure
that it is readily available and that everyone
knows where they can find the procedures.
Understanding the
HAZWOPER Standard
Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response
protocols, often referred to as HAZWOPER, are a set
of standards for dealing
with projects involving
the cleanup of toxic waste.
HAZWOPER requires
companies to follow a
strict set of health and
safety requirements when
responding to spillage
emergencies or dealing with
toxic cleanups.
A Brief History
Officially written up by the OSHA in 1989, HAZWOPER
seeks to protect the health and safety of workers. The
term, however, predates the OSHA’s official adoption
by several decades. For example, in World War II the
term was used surrounding the Hanford Site and others
involved in the creation of atomic weapons. In fact,
the HAZWOPER acronym actually started out as just
HAZWOP; the U.S. Department of Defense’s protocols
for cleaning up military waste after testing and operations
related to the war. Thirty-some years later, a similar
acronym would arise in regards to multiple disasters
involving toxic waste (including the infamous Love Canal
disaster, in which a community was plagued by birth
defects and other health issues as a result of housing
development construction on a site contaminated
by thousands of tons of toxic waste). Today, OSHA’s
HAZWOPER has encompassed several past iterations
of cleanup procedures by various governmental bodies
through the years to become one unified set of standards.
Applications
HAZWOPER applies to three specific categories of
operations, the first of which is hazardous waste cleanup
sites. The second category is the handling of waste that is
conducted at a designated treatment storage and disposal

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4. Ensure the quality of all vehicles, machinery,
and PPE. Because hazardous waste sites can
be so dangerous, you should be conducting
regular inspections of all equipment involved,
often with a greater frequency than you
would for a non-HAZWOPER site. One of
the most important considerations is your
personal protection equipment, which
prevents employees’skin, lungs, eyes, and
other sensitive tissues from coming in direct
contact with any of the materials. OSHA has
specific requirements for the grade of PPE
you’re required to have based on the materials
your employees are working with.
Following these steps will see you well on your way to a
comprehensive HAZWOPER program; refer to OSHA
HAZWOPER Standard, 1910.120 for further specifics.
3. Training training training! One of the most
cut-and-dried requirements of HAZWOPER,
which normally doesn’t change depending
on your specific operation, is the amount of
training required of your workers. General
site employees will need to complete
40 hours of training based around your
HAZWOPER program, and each year they’ll
need to complete eight hours of refresher
training. Supervisors and managers are
required to have additional hazardous waste
certifications, and even more training is
required for emergency responders.
About the author
Antonio Ferraro On behalf of Creative Safety Supply based in Portland, OR, I strive
to provide helpful information to create safer and more efficient industrial work en-
vironments. My knowledge base focuses primarily on practices such as 5S, Six Sigma,
Kaizen, and the Lean mindset. I believe in being proactive and that for positive change
to happen, we must be willing to be transparent and actively seek out areas in need
of improvement. An organized, safe, and well-planned work space leads to increased
productivity, quality products and happier workplace