The state of Wisconsin’s Department of Health recently introduced stricter regulations regarding the necessary training when handling asbestos products. The regulations specifically affect the roofing industry, requiring roofing supervisors to attend forty hour classes in place of the older eight hour classes. Roofing laborers are required to attend classes as well, although their’s are only thirty two hours long. The state doesn’t pay for the training courses, which has put a lot of the area’s roofing companies in a bind.

“There really isn’t a payback,” said Greg Johnson, the vice president of field operations for F.J.A. Christiansen Roofing Co. Inc. based in Milwaukee, “to all of the additional costs that go into asbestos service and training.”

The new courses cost nearly three thousand dollars per roofer, and take an entire work week. Roofers worry that while the classes definitely introduce a new demand on their time and money, they don’t actually introduce any new concepts or practices in terms of safely handling and disposing asbestos products.

Johnson goes on to say that most modern roofing operations aren’t even seeing roofs that use asbestos shingles, which is another strike against the new regulations in his mind. “This isn’t rocket science,” he said, “removing asbestos-containing materials – it’s all done according to procedure.”

The increase in required classes has followed an increasing stir in the asbestos products arena. Asbestos fibers have been conclusively linked to mesothelioma, an aggressive, rare and terminal form of cancer. Many mesothelioma patients were originally exposed to the substance through their place of work. Roofers and other construction related jobs are among the most frequently affected in terms of asbestos exposure.

“We can’t just allow one-day trained people to work on nonintact material because OSHA doesn’t allow it either,” said Shelley Bruce, the Department of Health’s Asbestos and Lead Certification Supervisor.

Shelley says the tighter regulations were introduced as a result of collaborative efforts with OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. She says that the state is willing to listen to roofer’s concerns, but in no way guarantees that the Department of Health will take any action to repeal the regulations.

Shawn Christon, the owner of a local safety training company that offers the newly required courses to contractors, doesn’t believe they’re strictly necessary. He admits that the new requirements mean more business for his firm, but says that the shorter courses seemed to offer more practical knowledge that dealt specifically with the roofing industry. The new courses cover a lot of material that have no bearing on rooftop work, he says.