The focus on green living is shifting from just reuse, reduce, recycle to the use of solar energy, electric cars and motorbikes and entire environmentally friendly neighbourhoods. Adding to that, disasters such as the recent Gulf Coast oil spill are making the job of an Environmental Protection Technician vital. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job outlook for environmental technicians is excellent. This occupation is projected to expand faster, through 2018, than other occupations that require post-secondary training or an associate degree.
As a technician, you are responsible for performing laboratory and field tests to analyze environmental resources and determine the contaminants that are causing pollution. You will also take samples for testing and generally have a hand in reducing or managing the causes of pollution. In order to pursue this field of work you should have good organizational, analytic thinking, communication and interpersonal skills. You must be well versed in using computers, particularly in computer modeling.
A typical day in the life of an Environmental Protection Technician would include a wide range of tasks. He or she might start the day by collecting samples of gases, soils, water, industrial wastewater and asbestos products, on which tests will be conducted to determine pollutant levels and identify sources of the pollution. A technician will also record test data, prepare reports and summaries and charts that interpret the test results. As a conclusion to the testing, he or she might work on developing and implementing programs of environmental pollution and radiation. Lastly, he or she will discuss the results with customers then set up equipment or stations to further monitor and collect pollutants from the sites. However, Environmental Protection Technicians are not limited to these duties. Technicians are also involved in the regulation of waste products, managing hazardous material, affecting compliance with environmental regulations, and the clean up of polluted sites. Work is found in laboratories, with government agencies and with environmental firms.
To get your foot in the door of this field, you will need to complete a college program such as Centennial College’s Environmental Programs undertaking. The School expects applicants to present at minimum an Ontario Secondary School Diploma or equivalent or be 19 years of age or older. You also need to possess compulsory English 12C or U or skills assessment, or equivalent and Math 11M or U, or 12C or U or skills assessment, or equivalent. Once requirements have been met, you will embark on an exciting two-year program that features practical training in the three foundation disciplines of biology, chemistry and civil engineering, which are used to help you understand and manage complex environmental issues. You’ll work with the tools and equipment that professionals use in the field and have laboratory practice in water quality testing, groundwater movement and the chemistry of pollutants. Upon graduation, you’ll be qualified to write the Ontario Ministry of the Environment Water Quality Analyst exam. There are even more exciting benefits to the Environmental Protection Technician program that you can check out by viewing the benefits page.
Posts tagged ‘Environmental’
Our earth is facing great challenges everyday but is still trying to keep the place safe for humans and other living organisms. With excessive pollution and other hazards that are faced by nature, the threat of leading a healthy life is increasing with each passing day. People are facing various kinds of problems and developing different kinds of ailments due to the increased pollution. Environmental remediation is an important step that has been taken by governments in many countries so that both people and nature are saved from the negative impacts of pollution. The problem of pollution is not only restricted to outdoors, the problem remains inside the house as well. The materials that are used for making houses like asbestos or lead-base paints are very harmful. Thus, asbestos abatement is an important step that has been taken by many people all over the globe to save their families and nature from pollution.
To many people the term environmental remediation is not very clear. It is basically the removal of pollution agents or sources of contamination from the environment so that human beings as well as the nature remain a little free of pollution. There are various steps related to environmental remediation and various rules and regulations have also been implemented regarding this in various countries of the world. There are various standards of environmental remediation that are set by different countries. Infact the standards in USA are a little different from the standards that are set in UK or in other parts of Europe. The government in these countries also provides certain guidelines that have to be followed by people on mandatory basis and not following them might lead to heavy penalty. This is a great step ahead to protect both humans and the nature from the ill effects of pollution.
If we concentrate on our house, we might find many materials that might cause harm to the people living inside. There are many houses that have asbestos shades. Most of the paints that are used for house painting have some lead content. These things are extremely harmful for the people and well as for the surrounding environment. Thus asbestos abatement is a step that is being readily accepted by many people. Many people are selecting paints for their houses, which have minimal or no lead content in them. These are also small yet effective steps towards environmental remediation. Asbestos is not harmful until the time the asbestos sheets are intact, not broken or damaged. Once any of such things happen, asbestos fibers start flying in the air causing respiratory problems. In such cases, immediate asbestos abatement should be done and the person suffering from breathing problem should be shifted to a different location immediately.
Asbestos abatement is a crucial step in environmental remediation as damaged asbestos poses great threat to humans as well as to the environment. Damaged asbestos should be safely removed with the assistance of trained professionals to minimize the risks of pollution. The kinds of safe housing materials that can be used are also mentioned in the various rules and regulations of environmental remediation.
Doing Environmental Due Diligence is a win-win situation for our environment and for the property owner. That’s why in United States the government is highly recommending every site property to undergo ESA before anything else. It must be the responsibility of the property owner to do this. They need to remember that money isn’t everything and that they need to think of their site’s health and what would be its effect to the environment if they let it be contaminated. So what is ESA?An Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) is a report prepared for a real estate holding which identifies potential or existing environmental contamination liabilities. It typically addresses both the underlying land as well as physical improvements to the property. When conducting ESA, it is the phase 1 ESA that you need to undergo first.Phase 1 ESA tells people what lies beneath. Beneath the surface of the subject property as Phase 1 inspect the land. Scrutiny of the land includes examination of potential soil contamination, groundwater quality, surface water quality and sometimes issues related to hazardous substance uptake by biota.Phase I Environmental Site Assessment reports are normally performed for commercial properties, residential developments, agricultural properties and industrial properties. They are usually required by banks for real estate purchase loans or refinancing. Even if a lender is not involved in the real estate transaction, a Phase I report is recommended as protection from any future environmentally-related liability after taking title to the property.A property condition assessment also includes a review of local governmental documents regarding the site to determine what the past usage of the site was, along with extensive document review of the surrounding area. It also entails a very involved and detailed site visit by a qualified professional. In addition there is data base information that is gathered and reviewed of the surrounding vicinity to determine if there is a potential risk from an environmental stand point in the immediate area.These potential risks can be anything from a past gas station on or near the site that might have contaminated the ground water to there having been a dry cleaner on the site that might have spilled chemicals into the ground. There could have been past dumping on the site or an auto repair that did not handle the oils properly, lead in the paint, asbestos, and on and on. Industrial hygiene consultants can detect all of that.The Phase I ESA is generally considered the first step in the process of environmental due diligence. Standards for performing a Phase I site assessment have been promulgated by the US EPA and are based in part on ASTM in Standard E1527-05. If a site is considered contaminated base on results of Phase 1 ESA, A Phase II Environmental Site Assessment may be conducted, ASTM test E1903, a more detailed investigation involving chemical analysis for hazardous substances and/or petroleum hydrocarbons. If contaminants are already found and that require removal, A Phase 3 ESA will soon be conducted. This includes remediation of the site.In the United States of America demand increased dramatically for this type of study. Mainly because property holders already realized how important it is for their property to undergo ESA before anything else.In looking for an environmental engineering service to conduct ESA in to your site, remember that you need to find professionals that have the expertise and experience on handling it. Environmental Consultants should have a thorough understanding of environmental laws and practices so that they can quickly provide turnaround on Phase I & Phase II Environmental Site Assessments.
There are one,060 hazardous waste sites on the list of the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S.A. They need recently added a further 10 toxic waste sites to the 527 contaminated properties which endanger life.
Toxic contamination however, may be a world-wide issue and not restricted to anybody country. Here are just a few of the worst man-made disasters.
Picher, Oklahoma, the most toxic place in the U.S.A. has but 25 residents remaining. It was once the world’s richest lead and zinc mining field, housing twenty,000 people. Acidic water, sinking streets and mountains of lead contaminated waste fill the area.
Fishing boats rust in an exceedingly vast, contaminated desert wasteland, the Aral Ocean, which was drained empty by Soviet irrigation.
Guiyu, China, is the world’s second-most polluted place on the planet. It is the biggest e-waste village, where electronic trash is pulled apart by hand, to retrieve valuable parts and wires. Circuit boards are burned, cooked and soaked in acid to extract scraps of precious metals.
Twice the dimensions of Texas, the Pacific Rubbish Vortex contains 3.5 million tons of rubbish, 90% of which is plastic debris, swirls between California and Hawaii.
Following gas drilling in Java, Indonesia, that created a’mud volcano’, that killed 13 people, hot sulfuric mud gushes frequently from the ground. The steaming mud pool covers over 25sq k and is growing at an estimated fifty,000 cubic meters per day. Scientists say the mud will continue erupting for another thirty years.
The Berkeley Pit Lake, a copper mine, is crammed with a lot of than forty billion gallons of acidic water and heavy metals. It’s a hazard to migrating birds.
Exploding in 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Station contaminated countless square miles and released radioactive material into the air. The complete space may be a radioactive freeze frame of the old USSR.
In 1984, the Union Carbide pesticide manufacturing plant leaked thirty two a lot of deadly methyl isocyanate, in Bhopal, India. Thousands died and thousands more were deformed, blinded, and disabled. Additional than a pair of,000 bodies were cremated in one day. The soil and water close to the factory are toxic from the still leaking plant. There has been no clean-up.
Trying to scrub up following nuclear tests within the Marshall Islands, within the late Nineteen Seventies, the U.S. government dug up 111,000 cubic yards of radioactive soil and deposited it on Runit Island, in a 350-foot wide crater left by the nuclear tests. An enormous, foot-and-a-half-thick, 100,000-sq.-foot dome created of 358 gigantic concrete panels, was engineered over the site. The area remains radioactive.
A Soviet drilling rig accidentally caused the ground to give way and the complete drilling rig to fall in, when it punched into a huge underground natural gas cavern, in 1971. Poisonous fumes started leaking from the hole. The 328 ft. wide hole, in the Turkmenistan desert, has been continuously on hearth, for 38 years, since the Russians set the opening aflame, so as to move off a possible deadly catastrophe.
Due to health concerns Australia’s Wittenoom, Pilbara, was officially closed down in 1966. It was once the realm’s largest city in the asbestos mining space, however is currently a toxic ghost town.
Centralia, Pennsylvania’s underground coal fireplace, ignited sometime in 1962. In 1981 a 12-year-old boy fell into a a hundred and fifty-foot hole that suddenly appeared in his back yard. In 1992 the entire town was condemned.
Decades of strip mining for phosphorus, Nauru is left with just a one hundred fifty-meter-wide strip of fertile land along one in all its shores. The mining has devastated over 80 % of Nauru’s land, leaving it a barren wasteland of jagged limestone pinnacles up to 49 ft. high.
Finally we have a tendency to have the Mexico Gulf oil spill, that is as yet unmeasurable.
Did you know that Radon (a colorless & odorless gas that sometimes accumulates in basements or other confined areas in the house) can cause lung cancer? In fact, United States Environmental Protection Agency states that after cigarettes, Radon gas is the most recurring cause of lung cancer in United States. This means, you can be exposed to the risk of developing lung cancer while living in a particular building, without even knowing it. The reason for all this information is not to scare people, but to highlight the importance of knowing (and doing something) about the probable environmental hazards in your residential or commercial properties. It also means that you must take environmental hazards into consideration when buying a property.
Environmental issues are becoming a much bigger concern with the passage of time, as new discoveries and researches continue to reveal, how a seemingly harmless element can cause serious damages. Even though, most of these hazards can be taken care of once they are identified, but it can be a costly procedure. Therefore, this information must be a part of your buying decision, especially when you are negotiating on price. In some states, laws are being introduced, asking property sellers to disclose such information at the time of sale, but even if such laws are not practiced, it is a buyer’s right to be sure of the nonexistence of such environmental vulnerabilities.
Asbestos:
Asbestos is a type of fiber which was used in a number of products in the past. People, who are exposed to high level of asbestos, can develop mesothelioma, lung cancer or asbestosis (due to the inhaling of asbestos particles). Although, Asbestos is not used in product manufacturing anymore, it is still found in older products and homes. Therefore, you should consider hiring some Asbestos professional, if you are going to buy an old home.
Radon Gas:
As stated above, Radon gas is an odorless gas that can cause serious breathing problems. There are test kits in the market to examine the air quality and radon level in the living areas. There are various ways to remove or reduce radon accumulation. For example, you can make use of ventilating fans. Note that radon is mostly a problem in confined areas like basements and high radon levels are not likely in good airy rooms, with windows and proper ventilation.
Lead:
Lead particles can be ingested that results in damage to the bones, blood or nervous system (especially in the children). It can dissolve into the drinking water, making it hazardous to consume. Use of lead in any form is prohibited especially in the homes or products that deal with children.
We all know that the main cause for the natural disasters occurring today is man. Global warming has caused a lot of destruction to the places and people on the Earth. Various adversities like floods, famines, tidal waves are the results of the damage man have done to the environment by oil leaks on the ocean, wastes and even deforestation. Now various groups like government organizations, non-government organizations as well as private groups are taking steps to make everybody aware of the damage that they have caused to the nature. Our Earth is deteriorating each and everyday because something or the other is happening in different parts of the world and there are groups which are providing environmental services by protecting the nature so as to conserve the resources given by it. They are called Environmental Remediation contractors.
Environmental Remediation contractors provide services for any fatalities found in nature. Their main duty is to see that the Earth is liberal to the people living in it. They provide services like groundwater supervision programs, energy audits; facility commissioning and they also provide services regarding installations of solar panels as well as green roofs. There are some companies which produce harmful wastes while manufacturing their products and moreover, it is unavoidable. Therefore it is their social responsibility to dispose the wastes properly so that it does not cause any harm to the society. In such cases they can take help from the Environmental Remediation contractors for proper waste management. They also provide services like indoor air quality management, fuel management services, geothermal installation and manages other environmental issues as well.
Asbestos is said to be a fibrous mineral which has great tensile strength, it is highly heat resistant and has unique insulating qualities. It is generally found in building materials like floor tiles, acoustic ceilings, roofing ceiling tiles, insulation and many other materials. Until the goods containing asbestos is in good condition, they are not dangerous and there is no need for Asbestos Abatement. But if the asbestos fibers become airborne, people may breathe and it may cause harm to their lungs. Asbestos exposure may cause serious lung diseases such as lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis for which there is no cure. This is the reason why Asbestos Abatement becomes necessary.
Asbestos Abatement becomes necessary to prevent these asbestos fibers from being released into the environment because there is a danger of it being inhaled by the people. If the asbestos containing products are not disposed properly, it can be really dangerous. Asbestos is a heavily regulated substance and its removal is usually done by trained experts. But at times home owners do this work to save money, this is not correct because it may harm them as they are not aware of the safety measures for disposing such products. It is important to take the help of asbestos abatement experts as they are aware of the risk and know how to detect and dispose such products. They wear protective clothing and have equipments that help in safe removal process.
Therefore, it is everyone’s duty to help in Environmental Remediation and safe Asbestos Abatement.
(1888PressRelease) Environmental Green Business wants to develop Partnerships, Strategic Alliances, Joint-Venture, to Merger or Acquisition with Venture Capital Partners to expand across Canada and USA.Restoration Environmental, one of Canada’s leading GREEN specialty environmental remediation contractors in Asbestos Removal, Demolition and Disaster Recovery Emergency Response.
Restoration Environmental, one of Canada’s leading GREEN specialty environmental remediation contractors in Asbestos Removal, Demolition and disaster recovery Emergency Response is looking for Strategic Alliances, Joint-Venture Partners, and to Venture Capital expand in Canada and USA.
Restoration Environmental Contractors-REC Demolition announced their 20th anniversary of being GREEN. Established in 1989, the company has completed over 9,000 environmental restoration and demolition projects throughout Canada specializing in demolition, asbestos removal, lead abatement and industrial plant cleaning, plant decommissioning & closures, site remediation, disaster recovery and emergency response in the industrial, commercial, governmental and institutional sectors.
Restoration Environmental prides themselves on their outstanding safety record, their commitment to environmental stewardship, the high level of productivity of their skilled unionized workforce and by enforcing the Three R’s – Reduce, Re-use and Recycle, the company’s “Green LEED Philosophy” and market strategy.
Restoration Environmental’s senior project management and site supervisory team has accumulated more than one million hours of on-site contracting experience, whether they are small or large projects, from emergency service response calls, or maintenance calls, or multi-million dollar demolition, disaster recovery, and environmental remediation projects.
REC believes the process should be simple, while at the same time creating options for their clients that offer sound environmental solutions in plant decommissioning, site decontamination, soil remediation and demolition.
The company’s commitment to meet the needs of their clients with experienced, highly skilled unionized workers, well-planned project planning and an assurance to quality means that Restoration Environmental can help with a disaster recovery emergency response readiness plan, plant decommissioning or closure, an asbestos removal, an environmental remediation, demolition or historic restoration project.
Restoration Environmental Contractors – REC Demolition – REC DisasterRecovery services include:- Environmental Abatement and Soil Remediation Contractors- Demolition; Deconstruction, Asset Recovery, Equipment Dismantling- Hazardous Materials Removal; asbestos removal, Mold, PCBs, Lead.- Plant Closures: Industrial Plant Decommissioning, Soil & SiteRemediation- Removal and Interior Plant Cleaning of Heavy Metals- Disaster Recovery; Planning Cost saving Service Contracts – Fire, Sewage Backup, Flood, Water, Wind Damage Restoration- Emergency Response: bonded secure, CPIC Police Cleared Staff.
Corporate Profile Background:
Restoration Environmental REC Demolition REC Disaster Recovery is a turnkey, full-service, emergency response contractor and environmental contractor, a recognized leader in the environmental, demolition, restoration and construction industry. Their exceptional reputation, aggressive health & safety program and quality client services make them one of Canada’s leading environmental and government emergency response contractors.
Don Bremner and David Bremner are the founders of The Passion Campaign.ca an awareness campaign bringing together local food banks and thirteen charities that help the poor, homeless and less fortunate every day in Brantford, Hamilton, Markham and Toronto-GTA
Don Bremner and Restoration Environmental Contractors – REC Demolition – REC Disaster Recovery were the Proud Owners of The Markham Waxers Junior “A” Hockey Club for 11 years, from 1994-2005 Web: markhamwaxersarchives.ca;
Don Bremner is the President and majority owner of Abcott Construction Ltd. a Design Build General Contractors (Est. 1972), an awarded Butler Builders, Project Managers and Construction Managers. Builders of ICI specializing in manufacturing, commercial, institutional, government (schools), steel and automotive dealerships / industries.
Press Contact: Don BremnerP.O. Box 746, 10 Stalwart industrial Drive Unit 5Gormley, Ontario, Canada, L0H 1G0 tel:1-905-888-0066 fax: 905-888-0071
donbremner ( @ ) restorationenvironmental dot com http://www dot environmentalhazards dot com/new (Under Construction new web site)
Call 1-800-894-4924 – Please forward all Project or Tender Related E-Mails to: rec ( @ ) restorationenvironmental dot com or info ( @ ) abcott dot ca
For further information: Don Bremner President, at 1-800-894-4924 toll-free or Email donbremner ( @ ) restorationenvironmental dot com
Environmental Green Business wants to develop Partnerships, Strategic Alliances, Joint-Venture, to Merger or Acquisition with Venture Capital Partners to expand across Canada and USA.
