Environmental & Risk Management / Clean Building / Environmental Hazard Manager
Environmental & Risk Management / Clean Building / Field Assessor

Collecting Samples to be Tested for Hazardous Substances

To verify that an area is hazardous-free, it is typically necessary to collect samples and send the samples to a lab to test for the presence of hazardous substances.

For example, if you suspect that asbestos has been disturbed and released into the environment, you can collect a soil sample, an air sample, or a dust sample and send them to a lab for testing. If the results show that asbestos is present, you most likely need to start planning for an abatement project. If preliminary test results are inconclusive, you may need to collect a more comprehensive set of samples.

As another example, you may visibly see mold at your site. However, it is important to collect a sample so that you can identify the type of mold.

Some building materials (such as pipe insulation) will contain a manufacturer label that verifies presence of asbestos, in which case a sample isn’t necessary. If an area is difficult to access to collect a sample and the building material in question likely contains hazardous substances, an inspector may choose not to collect a sample by presuming that hazmat is present.

Collecting Samples

Collecting samples may be done in various phases of a hazmat project, and by various users involved in the hazmat project. For example:

As a starting point, a field assessor performs a quick, initial assessment by collecting just a few select samples.
If an initial assessment indicates problems, a field assessor visits all potentially affected areas and collects samples from each area.
A site hires an outside inspector to collect and manage the testing of samples.
After an abatement project has been finished, an inspector collects and tests samples to verify that all hazardous substances have been removed and the area is now safe.

As you can see, a particular area to assess may have several samples associated with it, each representing a different phase of a hazmat process. For each separate sample, it is important to identify the collection date, who collected the sample, where it was sent for testing, and so on. For each separate sample, this information can greatly vary.

Following the Proper Collection Procedures

Depending on the type of sample you are collecting and the hazardous substance for which you are testing, you may need to follow specific requirements when collecting the sample. You should contact your appropriate government regulatory agency for information on these requirements. For example, US-based companies may want to consult the EPA's Test Method Collections page at http://www.epa.gov/fem/methcollectns.htm. Testing a sample that was not properly collected can produce inconclusive results.

Determining How Many Samples to Collect

Although each sample that you collect will be linked to a hazmat assessment item, it is not necessary that you collect samples for each area documented with a hazmat assessment item. The certified inspector inspects the areas defined by the hazmat assessment items, but determines where actual sampling is necessary.

The inspector inspect all requested areas and indicates which areas were sampled. Optionally, they can indicate these areas on floor plan drawings, as described at the end of this topic. They will also note which areas were not sampled but are presumed to contain the hazard.

The inspector’s sampling methods vary by substance.

For asbestos, they look for homogeneous areas (areas which may span across multiple rooms); sampling from one room is applicable to all rooms which are deemed part of the same homogeneous area.
For mold and lead, a room-by-room inspection and sampling is typically necessary.
For radon, air samples are typically taken from one or multiple locations on each floor or only on lower floors, but not room by room.

Documenting How you Collect Samples

Whether you are a field assessor, an inspector, or an environmental hazard manager, you will enter sample information using the Manage Assessment Items task or the Manage My Assessment Items task.

Note: A field assessor is typically an internal employee who has access to Field Assessor role and the Manage My Assessment Items task. If an inspector, as an outside employee, does not have access to the ARCHIBUS system, they can provide the collection data to the environmental hazard manager who will then enter the data.

On the Process Navigator, select the Manage Assessment Items task, which is available from both the Field Assessor and Environmental Hazard Manager roles.
Select the hazard assessment project to see a list of existing assessment items for this project. If you are not an environmental hazard manager, you will see items assigned only to you.

The system shows as many assessment items, as can display in the lower pane.
If necessary, use the filter console to limit the list of assessment items. For example, you may wish to see items only for a particular floor.
Review the assessment items in the lower pane. Note that the Samples column indicates the number of sample records associated with this assessment.
To review the existing samples or document a new sample, choose the Samples button.
Scroll through the list of existing samples.
To update a sample, choose the Edit button.
If you want to create a new sample for this assessment item, choose the Add New button.
The form offers many fields for documenting how you collected your sample:

Sample Code	Enter a value that uniquely identifies this sample and that you will recognize as representing this sample. When you send the sample to the lab, you should label it with this value.
Date Collected	Enter the date on which you collected the sample.
Analysis Requested	Enter the type of analysis you want the lab to perform. PLM stands for “Polarized Light Microscopy”, an asbestos testing method. For asbestos, there is also TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy).
Sample Description	Describe the type of material you have collected, such as "dust" or "paint chip"
Sample Location	Enter a description of the area from which you took the sample. For example, you could enter "far left corner of rug" or of "top of bookcase." Note that the location within the building (Building Code, Floor Code, Room Code) is stored as part of the assessment item. You do not need to mention this information as part of completing this field. If your site plans to document the sampling location in a CAD drawing, the CAD specialist updating the floor plan drawing can use these notes to update the drawing.
Sample Location Code	This is an optional identifier, often numeric, to identify the exact spot where the sample was gathered. Whereas Sample Location holds a description of the location (such as Left Wall Center), this field holds a random code or number which is assigned by the inspector to the sampling spot.
Sample Type	Choose from the available choices of Bulk, Surface, or Air. If these values do not apply, choose N/A.
Sample Prefix Number	If you are collecting many samples, you may wish to optionally organize them by a prefix for easier retrieval in later uses. Use the same prefix for several related samples so that you can group them easily.
Document	Use this document field to store scanned copies of any documents related to the sample. For example, you may wish to take pictures of your sample and attach the image files as documents. Or, you can scan the lab report and attach the file as a document.

To indicate that sampling is in process, in the hazard assessment record you can set the Hazard Status value to "INSPECTION- Inspection and Sampling in Process."

Documenting on a Floor Plan Drawing the Area from which you Collected a Sample

For complete documentation of your gathered samples, you may wish to indicate on a floor plan CAD drawing the exact areas on the floor from which you gathered samples.

If your site wants to update CAD drawings in this manner, as a sample collector you will need to make notes on the exact location from which you gathered the samples. This information will then be passed along to a CAD specialist who will update the floor plan drawings with these locations.There are a few methods for noting this information:

You can enter your notes in the Sample Location field, as noted above.
As you collect samples, you can bring with you a hard-copy floor plan and mark the hard-copy with exact areas from which you gather the samples.

For information on updating a CAD floor plan drawing with sample information, see Draw Hazard Samples.

The assessment manager now sends the samples to the lab for testing. When the lab returns its results, an assessment manager typically completes information about how the lab managed the samples and the results it found. See Recording Hazardous Substance Test Results.

Environmental & Risk Management / Clean Building / Environmental Hazard ManagerEnvironmental & Risk Management / Clean Building / Field Assessor