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WHAT IS A COMPETENT PERSON?
The employer must designate a competent person to frequently and regularly inspect job sites, materials, and equipment to implement the written exposure control plan. A competent person is someone who:
- Can identify existing and foreseeable respirable crystalline silica hazards.
- Is authorized to promptly eliminate or minimize silica hazards.
- Has the knowledge and ability to implement the written exposure control plan.
The employer can designate any of his or her employees to be a competent person if the employee is qualified, including the employee who does the work on a jobsite. For example, employees who go to jobsites alone can be designated a competent person if they know how to properly implement controls on the tools they use, can recognize if the controls are not working, and can correct the non-working control.
WHAT TRAINING WILL SMA PROVIDE FOR A COMPETENT PERSON?
As mentioned above, there is no specific training requirement for the competent person. The SMA provides an online curriculum that will cover the basics of the silica standard and controls to reduce silica exposure for plastering contractors. Employers can use this curriculum as the basis for training and expand on it as need to fit their individual needs. The SMA is deciding on providing the option for contractors to pass a competent person quiz and be issued a SMA Competent Person Card that can be shown to OSHA inspectors.
The SMA now offers 
