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Questions, Questions...

Have you ever noticed how much of our conversation is comprised of questions? Either asking them or answering them, we spend a lot of time seeking and supplying answers. Those of us who work in the hazardous materials abatement field face a barrage of questions on a daily basis.

So where do you work? When I tell someone I work for a hazardous materials abatement company, I know their reaction beforehand. Their face contorts into the same expression they made upon biting into a Brussels sprout for the first time. Sometimes this facial contortion is accompanied by a small, almost imperceptible, step backwards. It’s a great ice breaker – try it some time!

Why would you want to work THERE? Well, why not? Certainly working in the office doesn’t pose a threat – unless you find the possibility of being buried alive in paperwork generated by and/or required by an “alphabet soup” of governmental agencies (DEP, EPA, DER, OSHA) daunting. Personally, I can take it, and our workers who deal with the actual removal of these substances have had extensive training and many years of experience in all aspects of safely abating toxic materials.

That’s hard work, isn’t it? Yes it is and doing it successfully – and properly – requires a lot of skill and training. If you’ve ever driven or walked past a building and seen poly-covered containments and huge, corrugated flex-duct coming out of a window, you’ve seen the degree of preparation required. Inside you’ll find men and women clad head to toe in protective clothing that makes them resemble either a large, white rabbit with a praying mantis head or an escapee from a Jules Verne movie set. I like to think of these folks as our own version of “superheroes”, sporting coveralls instead of tights – thank goodness! – and wielding HEPA filters instead of swords and light sabers.

You’re going to run out of asbestos to remove one day, aren’t you? This can either be a question or a smugly-delivered statement. Yes, we will run out of asbestos to remove ~ that’s the POINT. However, as long as human beings walk the Earth, they’re going to create new things that will eventually prove harmful and require removal ~ and we’ll be here to remove them, making the world a healthier place in which to live.