Bretherick’s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards

L. Bretherick, P.G. Urbcn and M.J. Pitt, Bretherick s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards An Indexed Guide to Published Data, 6th Edn, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 1999. ISBN 075063605X. 

The number of reactions that can run away is enormous, Bretherick s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards [1] lists about 4,700 chemicals that have been involved in hazardous reactions of one sort or another, and there are more than 20,000 cross-references to entries involving more than one chemical. It is an essential work of reference for the chemist, the process engineer, and everyone involved in process safety. All I can do here is give a few examples to illustrate the reasons why runaways occur. 

Volume 2 of Bretherick s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards (Urben, 1999) lists many structures and individual chemical compounds having oxidizing properties. NFPA 432 can be consulted for typical organic peroxide formulations. Note, however, that some organic peroxide formulations bum with even less intensity than ordinary combustibles and present no chemical reactivity hazard. 

References on incompatibilities, such as Bretherick s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards (Urben 1999), Sax s Dangerous Properties of Industrial Materials (Lewis and Irving 2000) and NFPA 491, Hazardous Chemical Reactions (NFPA 2002), summarize published literature and incidents on incompatibilities. They may give more detailed information on what to expect when specific materials are combined. 

The voluminous Bretherick s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards (Urben 1999) gives brief summaries of published accounts of numerous incidents involving reactive chemicals and interactions. Bretherick s Handbook includes reactivity information on over 5000 materials, plus a like number of secondary entries involving interactions between two or more materials. Bretherick s Handbook is also available in an electronic format. 

Urben, P.G. (ed.) 1999. Bretherick s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards, Sixth Edition. 2 vols. Oxford, UK Butterworth Heinemann. ISBN 0-7506-3605-X. Also available on CD-ROM as Bretherick s Reactive Chemical Hazards Database—Version 3.0. Oxford, UK Butterworth-Heinemann. On-line by subscription [www.chemweb.com]. 

The PSI element of both the OSHA PSM Standard and the EPA RMP regulation can be improved by requiring the inclusion of all existing information on chemical reactivity. Examples of such information are chemical reactivity test data, such as DSC, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), or accelerating rate calorimetry and relevant incident reports from the plant, the corporation, industry, and government. OSHA and EPA should require the facility to consult such resources as Bretherick s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards,Sax s Dangerous Properties of Industrial Materials, and computerized tools (e g., CHETAH, The Chemical Reactivity Work Sheet). 

Bretherick s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards, 6th Ed. Butterworth-Heinemann Retrieved information... 

Fluorine nitrate is shock sensitive, especially in liquid state. The liquefied material explodes when shaken vigorously or in contact with alcohol, ether, andine, or grease (Bretherick s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards, 5th. Ed., P. Urhen (ed.) 1995, pp 1405-6, Oxford, UK Butterworth-Heinemann). The gas catches fire when mixed with ammonia or hydrogen sulfide. 

Luckily for the laboratory chemist, many of these mishaps of yesteryear have been collated, most notably (and authoritatively) by Leslie Bretherick. Bretherick s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards, which by 2006 had reached its 7th edition, details the predictable and the unexpected from the literature of reactive chemical hazards. In a review, published in Hazards in the Chemical Laboratory, 5th edn, ed. S.G. Luxon, Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, 1992, Bretherick has also summarised some frequently encountered incompatible chemicals that present either a reactive hazard or a toxic hazard if combined. These two lists are reprinted here as Tables 11.4 and 11.5 by kind permission of the Royal Society of Chemistry. In addition, potentially explosive combinations of some commonly-encountered laboratory reagents are shown in Table 11.6 (reproduced with permission from Chemical Safety Matters, lUPAC-IPCS, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992). 

Safety. Solvents with low potential for fire and reactive chemistry hazards are preferred as inherently safe solvents. In all cases, solvents must be used with a full awareness of potential hazards and in a manner consistent with measures needed to avoid hazards. For information on the safe use of solvents and their potential hazards, see Sec. 23, Safety and Handling of Hazardous Materials. Also see Growl and Louvar, Chemical Process Safety Fundamentals with Applications (Prentice-Hall, 2001) Yaws, Handbook of Chemical Compound Data for Process Safety (Elsevier, 1997) Lees, Lo.ss Prevention in the Process Industries (Butterworth, 1996) and Bretherick s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards, 6th ed., Urben and Pitt, eds. (Butter-worth-Heinemann, 1999). 

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