Chemical reactivity hazard management screening methods

Product stewardship, chemical reactivity hazard management, 29-30 Protective systems, documentation, 105 Pyrophorics, screening methods, 43-45... 

Chapter 3 is a Preliminary Screening Method designed to help identify whether chemical reactivity hazards are present at a facility. It can be used to determine whether the information in this publication is sufficient, or whether additional resources are going to be required, for managing identified chemical reactivity hazards. 

Table 2.3 gives one way for an existing facility to get started toward successfully managing chemical reactivity hazards. This assumes you already have an idea as to what chemical reactivity hazards must be addressed by the management system, such as by answering the questions in the Preliminary Screening Method of Chapter 3. 

Use of the Preliminary Screening Method of Chapter 3, along with the chemical reactivity data collected so far (Section 4.2), should begin to give at least a qualitative idea of the chemical reactivity hazards that may be present in an actual or proposed facility. However, the absence of particular information does not imply that no hazards exist. For this reason, a systematic search to attempt to identify all chemical reactivity hazards, in the context of how materials will be used in the actual process, is the next step in effectively managing chemical reactivity hazards. If a particular hazard is not recognized, it is not likely to be adequately controlled. 

In a Downstream Decomposing facility not the subject of this example, intentional chemistry is performed as ammonium dichromate is heated to decomposition to make chromium dioxide, which is used in the production of magnetic tape products. In the Upstream Feeds facility under study, physical processing is performed as ammonium dichromate is fed through a screw conveyor. The Preliminary Screening Method is to be used as a first-cut determination whether chemical reactivity hazards will need to be managed in the physical processing facility. 

A review of material safety data and standard references for the ingredients may result in answering Questions 7 through 11 as shown in Table 5.5. Two of the ingredients, aluminum powder and sodium hydrosulfite, are known to be reactive chemicals, so a chemical reactivity hazard is obviously present. At this point, the Preliminary Screening Method would point the user to the information in Chapter 4, for identifying and managing chemical reactivity hazards. 

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