Environmental Actions Achieve Results

This chapter will explain how polyurethanes can play important roles in achieving acceptable equilibrium. Before we begin that discussion, we should discuss our most visible environmental problem — treatment of human waste. In the previous section, we covered the establishment of the equilibrium of SOCs, VOCs, and lOCs. The environmental effects of our daily existence resulting from personal hygiene and personal waste control are of immediate concern. Arguably, the types of pollution mentioned in the previous paragraphs warrant continuous monitoring. Human sanitary waste disposal requires continuous action. 

T o get things done in this world, we need men of action and common sense to see that more good is done than harm, we need men of reflection and uncommon sense. Both types play their role in maintaining the balance between the extremes of recklessness and stagnation. These days both types could hardly avoid being aware of the difficulties and unforeseen consequences resulting from our unprecedented technical achievements. The problems of environmental pollution have attracted attention and concern at all levels of responsibility and from all fields of competence. 

At that time, the multiannual French environmental inspection program (2004-2007) had four main objectives. Two of them demonstrate the application of the adversarial principle to increase the transparency of the actions of the inspector and to improve the coherency of all decisions taken on French territory. To achieve these objectives, the program provided easy access to information concerning the release of polluting materials, actions taken by the inspector to reduce industrial pollution and risks, and the results of the inspection, notably through the diffusion of information on the internet. This program has increased the visibility of inspection procedures and has allowed operators to be better iirformed of the procedures to be followed and how inspectors check industrial plants. 

A process is a particular course of action intended to achieve a desired goal or result. Typically, a process becomes a standardized set of steps that are performed in the process. Since a process performs a desired task, the erroneous performance of a process step, or the failure to perform a process step when needed, may result in serious safety consequences. Process-related hazards can result from many different or combined causal factors, such as hardware failures, hardware tolerance errors, system timing errors, software errors, human errors, sneak circuits, and environmental factors. The criticality of the process typically determines the safety vulnerability involved. 

---