A materials technician is someone who identifies, removes, and disposes of potentially hazardous materials and substances. Hazardous materials technician and hazardous materials removal worker are two other terms for this position. Asbestos is one of the most common hazardous materials that a technician will come across. This is a material that was widely used in the construction of buildings for much of the twentieth century and contains fibers that can cause mesothelioma, a type of cancer, as well as asbestosis, an inflammatory disease. Lead, arsenic, mold, mercury, noxious gases, airborne particles, and nuclear and radioactive waste are among the other hazardous materials that a materials technician may remove.
To classify a material as hazardous, a materials technician must determine whether it easily catches fire, deteriorates, undergoes chemical reactions, or becomes toxic. Any one of these four characteristics has the potential to endanger public health. Materials technicians must wear goggles or safety glasses, gloves, coveralls, helmets or hardhats, respirators or face shields, and chemical-resistant clothing when inspecting buildings or structures. Scrapers, vacuums, water sprayers, and sandblasters were used to remove the hazardous materials.
In the field of materials technology, there are several specializations. There are workers who specialize in identifying and removing asbestos. Others work as emergency and disaster response personnel, cleaning up potentially hazardous particles or components at accident scenes. Decontamination workers are experts at removing radioactive and nuclear waste from nuclear facilities and power plants, as well as decontaminating the surrounding area.
A formal education beyond a high school diploma or general equivalency diploma is usually not required to become a materials technician (GED). On-the-job training is required by certain government standards at the federal, state, and local levels. These standards, however, may differ depending on the level of government and specialization.
In order to be licensed in the United States, aspiring materials technicians must complete at least 40 hours of on-the-job training. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a division of the Department of Labor that develops and enforces workplace safety regulations, offers a training program for handling hazardous materials like asbestos and lead. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is in charge of overseeing nuclear waste management. Other materials, such as mold, are subject to state government regulation.