Air laws and regulations

Local exhaust Mandatory. Must be filtered or scrubbed to limit exit concentration to non-detectable level. Air emissions will meet Federal, state and local laws and regulations. 

The purpose of this chapter is to summarize and generalize the various pollution, health, and environmental problems especially specific to the chemical industry and to place in perspective government laws and regulations as well as industry efforts to control these problems. A brief survey of air and water pollution problems will be given, but these are characteristic of all industry and the topics are too vast to be covered adequately in this book. We will be more concerned with toxic chemical pollution and its control and will spend some time on the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA, TOSCA) of 1976 and the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) list begun in 1988. 

State agencies have significant roles in the administration of federal environmental and safety laws and regulations. Thus, the state may issue operating permits and monitor compliance under, for example, the Clean Air Act, etc. 

Enforce Laws and Regulations That Protect Health and Ensure Safety. This service involves full enforcement of sanitary codes, especially in the food industry full protection of drinking water supplies enforcement of clean air standards timely follow-up of hazards, preventable injuries, and exposure-related diseases identified in occupational and community settings monitoring quality of medical services (e.g., laboratory, nursing homes, and home health care) and timely review of new pharmacologic, biologic, and medical device applications. 

Environmental laws and regulations including permits are reviewed in this chapter. Included are the Federal Clean Air Act Amendment (CAAA), the Federal Clean Water Act (CWA) regulations, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) or, as it is also known, the Solid Waste Disposal Act. Also discussed along with the regulations under OSHAare the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER). 

Many risks people are subjected to can cause health problems or death. Precautions should be taken based on what is practical, logical, and useful. However, those involved in laws and regulations, as well as the public and, particularly, the news media, should recognize that there is Acceptable Risk. This is the concept that has developed in connection with toxic substances, food additives, air and water pollution, fire and related environmental concerns, and so on. It can be defined as a level of risk at which a seriously adverse result is highly unlikely to occur but it cannot be proven whether or not there is 100% safety. In these cases, it means living with the reasonable assurance of safety and acceptable uncertainty. This concept will always exist. Note the use of automobiles, aircrafts, boats, lawnmowers, food, medicine, water, and the air we breathe. Practically all elements around us encompass some level of uncertainty. Otherwise, life as we know it would not exist. Many products and environmental factors are not perfect and never will be perfect. 

Solvent releases can affect the quality of air, water, and soil which can then have adverse effects on human health and the enviromnent. More stringent environmental laws and regulations have been established to control their utilization and ensure a safer and healthier environment and a sustainable future. They are placing greater emphasis on the elimination or reduction of such releases at the source and the preservation of limited natural resources. However, replacing offensive solvents requires a comprehensive assessment of their overall environmental impact. This will ensure that substitute chemicals will not impose more stress on our environment and human health by transferring the problem to other media. 

For outdoor environments there are many laws and regulations governing air and water quality and the handling and disposal of hazardous material. In addition, there are laws governing the cleanup of sites containing hazardous materials. 

There are many factors to consider when selecting air cleaning devices. Volume of air flow, concentration of contaminants, kind of contaminant and contaminant properties, temperature, pressure drop, contaminant hazards, and other factors are important. National, state, and local pollution control laws and regulations also affect the choice of collection device. 

Medical air must not be confused with the product Compressed air for breathing apparatuses which is intended for non-medical purposes, and the demands on production and quality of which are not defined in the pharmaceutical laws and regulations (GMP, Ph. Eur.), but in a standard norm (EN 12 021). Therefore, they differ significantly from the demands on the quality of a pharmaceutical preparation. For these reasons, compressed air for breathing apparatuses must not be used for medical purposes. 

A stack shall be used to provide an elevated release of the off-gas with a sufficient velocity (e.g. v > 12 m/s) for dispersing the off-gas. If a plant ventilation stack is available the off-gas discharge piping may be connected to the plant stack to provide a common release and monitoring point. The applicable air pollution control laws and regulations shall be observed for the stack design. 

It would take a volume larger than this entire publication to provide the reader with a comprehensive review of North American environmental laws and regulations. Moreover, environmental laws and regulations are often delegated to, or the responsibility of, state and local governments. It would not be possible in one volume to review even the structure of these regulatory systems, which cover air, solid waste, water, hazardous waste, work place exposures, commercial chemical review and cleanup of waste and industrial sites. 

Presence or absence of laws and regulations related to dust control and air quality. 

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