Existing chemicals data collection

All available information about chemical pressures and impacts should be used for setting up the monitoring strategy. Such information includes substance properties, pressure and impact assessments, and additional information sources, e.g. emission data, data on where and for what a substance is used, and existing monitoring data collected in the past. 

Control laboratories in the canned food industry are usually divorced from the research organization to a lesser degree than is the case in the chemical and allied industries. For this reason, a closer relationship exists between the problems of the control laboratory and the research laboratory. Although from a research standpoint this condition is often considered undesirable, it has considerable merit in the case of the canned food industry, in which production may be seasonal and often of rather short duration. The collection of control data in many instances may also serve for research purposes—for example, in the case of soil analyses, which may be correlated with agricultural research designed to improve crop yields. Because the variables which affect the quality of canned foods must usually be investigated rather extensively, and often over a period of more than one year, the application of statistical methods to data collected for control purposes can conceivably make a substantial contribution to a research program. 

As to existing chemicals, while much information has been collected, what is most important is realizing the need to be more selective and skillful in collecting and processing data. Section 8(e) has been a fertile source of information on substantial risks, but only recently has EPA recognized the need to respond to these risks. EPA s failure to use its authority to require industry to test selected chemicals is similarly... 

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. 

For existing substances, the data collection consists of three phases. The ESR was initially concerned with the so-called HPVCs (High Production Volume Chemicals). HPVCs are those substances, which are covered by the data collection phases I and II of the ESR, i.e., those substances which have been imported or produced in quantities exceeding 1000 tons per year and produced/imported between March 23 1990 and March 23 1994. During phase I, 1884 substances were extracted from EINECS - referred to as the HPVC list these substances are listed in Annex I of ESR. The total list of substances reported under phases I and II of the Regulation is now referred to as the EU-HPVC list. 

In phase III of the data collection step, companies which produce or import existing substances in quantities between 10 and 1000 tons per year (LPVCs or Low Production Volume Chemicals) were required to submit a reduced data set by 4 June 1998. 

International Uniform ChemicaL Information Database (lUCLID) is the basic tool for data collection and evaluation within the EU risk assessment program for existing substances and has also been accepted by the OECD as the data exchange tool under the OECD Existing Chemicals Program (see Section 2.4.1.6 for details). 

He then goes on to outline methods to be developed to reduce these losses. These are primarily along the lines of data collection and data analysis. Apparently insurance companies have assessed the potential loss in chemical and petrochemical plants as follows (Ref 10) For a number of years Industrial Risk Insurers has been cing a calculation method to estimate the potential for probable loss in plants where a vapor cloud hazard exists that uses the following criteria ... 

Environmental projects revolve around environmental data collection, analytical chemistry data for toxic pollutants in particular. Chemical data enable us to conclude, whether hazardous conditions exist at a site and whether such conditions create a risk to human health and the environment. We gather environmental chemical data by collecting samples of soil, water, and other environmental media at the right time and at the right place and by analyzing them for chemical pollutants. In other words, in the core of every environmental project lies an environmental sample. 

As we already know, an environmental sample is a fragile living matter that can be severely damaged at every step of its existence. Due to the inherent nature of environmental media and a host of potential errors associated with sampling, analysis, and data management, the collection of environmental chemical data is not an exact science. In fact, all environmental chemical data are only the estimates of the true condition that these data represent. In order to make these estimates more accurate, we must examine the sources of errors and take measures to control them. 

New chemical data will be collected to determine the PCDD/PCDF concentrations in soil. The coordinates of each sampling location will be surveyed for future entry into a database together with chemical data. To verify discharge permit compliance, VOC concentrations will be determined in the treatment system effluent. Influent samples will be also analyzed to calculate the GAC vessel train loading. An existing sample numbering system will be used and the data will be entered into an existing database. 

The next stage in the research project will focus upon those location points where significant variation exists, or where the data collected are puzzling. Selection of a limited number of points for the physical and chemical testing would preserve at least part of the evidence and assist in the search for information about the character of the fiber. An array of instrumental analyses would be designed to yield essential data about the textile evidence and its mineralization processes. 

The data collected unambiguously indicate the existence of a large variety of actinide orthophosphates and their analogues (orthovanadates, orthoarsenates, orthosilicates, etc.). They are characterized by iso- and heterovalent isomorphic substitutions of cations and anions, and polymorphic and morphotropic transitions. The data analysis allows to predict many new actinide compounds of the group with different expected stmctures and tailored properties, including stability in different extreme physical fields and chemical media. Certain progress in this research direction has already been achieved. 

The complexity of environmental matrices and the problems due to the spatial-temporal evolution of pollutants and their involvement in biogeochemical cycles calls for the utmost accuracy in data collection, data analysis and environmental control. The first and fundamental requisite to be satisfied in order to give definitive answers to existing environmental problems is the capacity to produce absolutely reliable data, particularly where trace toxic chemical substances are concerned. It is imperative that measured concentrations correspond strictly to the truth. This reminder might appear superfluous, but unfortunately the technical-scientific difficulties involved in the analytical process are often underestimated, as the scientific literature has already amply demonstrated (see for instance refs. 7 through 13). 

---