BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1468
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Byron D. Sher, Chairman
2003-2004 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 1468
AUTHOR: Pavley
AMENDED: June 30, 2003
FISCAL: Yes HEARING DATE: July 7, 2003
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Derek Ishikawa
SUBJECT : AIR QUALITY: NEGATIVE AIR MACHINES
SUMMARY :
Existing law :
1) Designates the State Air Resources Board (ARB) as the state
agency charged with coordinating efforts to attain and
maintain ambient air quality standards.
2) Requires air districts to achieve and maintain state and
federal air ambient air quality standards through the
regulation of non-vehicular emission sources.
This bill :
1) Requires negative air machines (NAM) at an asbestos
abatement site within the state that is inspected by a
district, pursuant to the adoption of a rule by that
district, to be leak tested on a monthly basis.
2) Prohibits contractors from testing their own NAMs.
3) Requires the certification of a NAM to be conducted by an
approved independent testing company, according to the
American National Standards Institute Z-9 standards.
4) Defines "approved independent training business" as a
company that has been approved by the state board to
provide training to independent testing companies to test
negative air machines.
5) Defines "approved independent testing company" as a company
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that an approved independent training business certifies as
having satisfactorily completed training for testing NAMs,
and is thus approved to perform NAM testing.
6) Requires the ARB to develop and adopt regulations, in order
to:
a) Create and maintain an approval program for
registering and approving independent training
businesses and for those businesses to train independent
testing companies to test negative air machines.
b) Provide for the maintenance of a publicly available,
updated database of approved independent training
businesses and approved independent testing companies.
c) Provide, at the discretion of the board, for the
creation and imposition of fees for the initial
application of a training business seeking to be an
approved training business and for the continued
certification of an approved independent testing
company.
7) Requires approved independent testing companies to issue
certification to the abatement contractor who owns or
operates the machine and affix certification decals to the
NAMs.
8) Requires the maintenance of testing records, available for
inspection by the appropriate district.
9) Requires the repair, removal, or replacement of any NAM
that fails a leak test.
10)Requires the air district with jurisdiction to enforce the
requirements of the section and provides for the imposition
of an administrative fine and citation for violation of any
of the bill's provisions.
COMMENTS :
1) Purpose of Bill. According to the author's office, this
bill is designed to ensure the continued safety and
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efficacy of negative air machines (NAMs), which are
routinely utilized in the process of asbestos removal. In
support of the bill, the American Lung Association,
"asbestos exposure is a well-documented and extremely
serious human health hazard." The author contends that
over time, the integrity of the seals or alignment of the
filter within these NAMs may become compromised, causing
the machines to filter to less-than-manufacturer's
standards.
The measure would require monthly testing of NAMs to ensure
that they adequately trap asbestos and do not leak, thereby
endangering the health of asbestos abatement workers and
the general public. Recent amendments to the measure would
set up a certification system-comprised of approved
independent testing companies that would be approved to
test negative air machines, as well as approved independent
training businesses which would provide training based on
existing industry standards to the testing companies.
2) Background of Asbestos Abatement . Long employed for their
fire-retardant, sound dampening, and thermal insulation
characteristics, asbestos was used in residential homes,
schools, and commercial and government buildings. Due to
documented health concerns regarding the inhalation of its
fibers, however, the use of asbestos has been significantly
curtailed in the past several decades.
As a result of its formerly widespread usage, asbestos
remains present in many older buildings. Left undisturbed,
asbestos poses no apparent harm. However, continued concern
over the carcinogenic and other potentially injurious
health effects of asbestos fibers has led to widespread
removal efforts, notwithstanding the demolition of older,
asbestos-containing buildings, that can result in asbestos
becoming airborne and being inhaled by construction workers
or individuals in near proximity to the work site.
In order to prevent the inhalation of such airborne
asbestos, NAMs equipped with high-efficiency particulate
air (HEPA) filters are routinely utilized during the
destruction or renewal of older buildings. These machines
filter contaminated air from a sealed work site, later
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exhausting clean, asbestos-free air to the outside or to be
recirculated within the building.
3) Asbestos exposure through compromised filtration seems
likely . According to author, a NAM's filtration
capabilities can become compromised in the course of
abatement or during transport. HEPA filters are required
to be at least 99.97 per cent efficient for the removal of
all airborne particulate matter 0.3 micrometers in diameter
or larger. While filter effectiveness is tested before
NAMs leave their manufacturing plant and some asbestos
abatement contractors and consultants require continued
testing, there are no existing requirements for continued
testing on a regular basis.
The possibility for misalignment of the machine's filters
or seals is plausible under a number of scenarios. These
machines-which are designed to clean air to exacting
standards-are subject to breaches and misalignment that may
impair their ability to function to filter to
manufacturer's standards. Bumping and jarring during
abatement or during routine transport in trucks from work
site to work site, in addition to normal wear-and-tear of
the machines screws, rivets, and seals, can all severely
impair the ability of the machine to effectively and safely
remove asbestos from a contaminated work site.
4) Is the risk posed by faulty NAMs best handled through
private-sector statewide testing ? While faulty NAMs do
pose a risk to the health of workers, and the continued use
of faulty NAMS is conceivable and seems even likely without
ongoing testing, it is not clear that existing levels of
asbestos exposure are directly correlated to faulty NAMs at
such a level as to require the creation of a private-sector
statewide system of certification and testing. In other
words, asbestos exposure is clearly a problem, but
questions remains as to how much of the exposure relates to
faulty NAMs.
On the other hand, the burden for proving that continued
asbestos exposure results from leaky filters or faulty NAMs
is uncertain without an idea of how often or how likely
NAMs become compromised through routine usage. One cannot
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rely on the symptoms of a worker to alert NAM owners and
operators of the malfunctioning NAM on a timely basis,
especially as the serious effects of asbestos exposure
often take years to manifest.
In order to provide for the accurate testing of NAMs
without further adding to the responsibilities of the air
districts, especially in an already staff-limited
environment, the author has envisioned a
business-enterprise certification system comprised of
ARB-approved, private-sector testing companies and training
businesses. The system that would be set up would be
somewhat akin to smog testing within the state, with
approved smog-testing companies located throughout the
state. However, unlike smog-testing, where the training of
testing centers is performed by the Bureau of Automotive
Repair under the Department of Consumer Affairs, approved
independent NAM-testing companies would be trained by
private-sector, ARB-approved independent training
businesses.
5) Program funding may need clarification . The author has
provided the ARB with a certain degree of flexibility in
setting up the proposed NAM-certification and testing
system. The bill suggests levying a one-time application
on the training businesses, while assessing an annual fee
on the testing companies; it may make more sense for both
business-enterprises to have to contribute to support the
program on an ongoing basis to ensure equity amongst all
business enterprises paying fees to the ARB for support of
the program. Additionally, it may be appropriate to set
the fees at a level to cover no more than the necessary
administration costs of the program. For additional
clarity, the committee may wish to provide more legislative
direction with respect to how fees are levied and how often
the fees need be collected.
6) Program implementation timeline should also be clarified .
Should the committee find that certification and testing
through a statewide business enterprise substantively
addresses the risk posed by faulty NAMs, it may wish to
consider amending the bill to provide greater clarity with
respect to an implementation schedule. For example,
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neither of the types of business enterprises-testing
companies or training businesses-mentioned in the bill
currently exist. There could conceivably be an extended
period of time before sufficient numbers of business
enterprises could be established to provide certification
and testing to the relevant NAMs. While it may be
appropriate to allow the ARB and air districts to determine
certain aspects of implementation in regulation at their
discretion, sufficient lead-time should be built into the
implementation to ensure that certification and testing is
indeed available.
Furthermore, the bill contains provisions authorizing the
air districts to issue citations and administrative fines.
The bill should be amended to provide to provide greater
statutory clarity with regard to when these citations and
fines become active.
SOURCE : Assembly Member Pavley
SUPPORT : American Lung Association, State Building and
Construction Trades Council of California.
OPPOSITION : None on file