Harmful exposure category

The United States Department of Labor—Bureaus of Labor Statistics April 10, 2002 report USDL 02-196 is designated as Lost-Worktime Injuries Characteristics and Resulting Time Away from Work, 2000. Table 4 is titled Number of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses involving days away from work by selected injury and illness characteristics and industry division, 2000. One of the categories in the listing of Event(s) or exposure(s) leading to injury or illness is Exposure to harmful substances. Of the 1,477,800 injuries and illnesses covered in Table 4, 69,100 are in the Exposure to harmful substances category. That s 4.7% of the total. 

This system has a particular focus. It applies only to personal injury, principally to employees, that could derive from machinery operation. As will be seen, all of the listings for Degree of possible harm involve personal injuries. There are no entries for possible damage to property or the environment. The terms used to establish gradations and scores in the Likelihood of occurrence and Frequency of exposure categories are comparable to those in previously cited risk assessment systems. They follow in Tables 14-16. 

Category M fluid service is defined as a fluid service in which a single exposure to a veiy small quantity of atoxic fluid, caused by leakage, can produce serious irreversible harm to persons on breathing or bodily coutacl , even when prompt restorative measures are taken. ... 

The third category for interactions is high dose (III). The effects produced by this level of interaction can be seen by the casual observer. The result of high-dose exposure is destruction or severe injury of the forest system. High-dose conditions are almost always associated with point source emissions. The pollutants most often involved are SO2 and hydrogen fluoride. Historically, the most harmful sources of pollution for surrounding forest ecosystems have been smelters and aluminum reduction plants. 

Toxins present a variety of both incapacitating and lethal effect. Most toxins of military significance can be broadly classified in one of two ways. Neurotoxins disrupt the nervous system and interfere with nerve impulse transmission similar to nerve agents (Chapter 1). However, all neurotoxins do not operate through the same mechanism of action or do they produce the same symptoms. Cytotoxins are poisons that destroy cells or impair cellular activities. Symptoms may resemble those of vesicants (Chapter 3) or they may resemble food poisoning or other diseases. Toxins may also produce effects that are a combination of these general categories. The consequences of intoxication from any individual toxin can vary widely with route of exposure and dose. In addition, some toxins act as biomediators and cause the body to release excessive, and therefore harmful, amounts of chemicals that are normally produced by the body. 

Since the late 1980s, there has been a proliferation of new potential reduced-exposure products (PREPs), promoted by the industry with the claims of reduced harm, in all the four categories that were summarized earlier (Stratton et al. 2001 Hatsukami et al. 2002, 2005). These include (a) modified tobacco products, such as several denicotinized brands and reduced TSNA emission cigarettes (b) chewing gum impregnated with tobacco (c) smokeless tobacco products with claimed reduced nitrosamine levels and (d) cigarette-like products (carbon-heated smoking devices). 

The term highly hazardous chemical is also defined by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in ASME B31.3—1990 Chemical Plant Petroleum Piping. They define a Category M Huid Service as that service in which the potential for personnel exposure is judged to be significant and in which a single exposure to a very small quantity of a toxic fluid can produce serious, irreversible harm to persons even when prompt restorative measures are taken. 

For each harm or damage category selected in step 1 for the scope of the analysis (people, property, etc.), estimate the frequency and duration of exposure to the hazard (the frequency and duration of endangerment) and the number of people and the extent of the property that is exposed to harm or damage. This is a very important part of this exercise. More judgments than one might realize will be made in this process. 

Individual risk (4th task category) means a probable consequence for the object (human, unit area or volume of environmental component) which is exposed to effects of the harmful substance concentration in given point and given time. Quantification of the risk come out from contaminant dangerousness assessment in term of its toxicity for human and ecosystems and its mobility in life environment in term of entry into the organism. Basis is than the contaminant concentrations and its time progress get from model results or expert estimation. The exposure dose and possible damage ratio of particular environment components is than derived. 

In fact the European Union has now cleared DEHP fiom any association with harm to public health, on the grounds that exposure levels are at least 700 times lower than the current safe levels. Discussions continue in relation to the other two major phthalate plasticisers, DINP and DIDP. Benzyl butyl phthalate rates Category 2 for adverse fertihty effects, but only Category 3 for its effects on human development. 

For this primer, two-dimensional risk assessment matrices are discussed. They are displays of variations for two categories of terms the severity of harm or damage that could result from a hazards-related incident or exposure, and the probability that the incident or exposure could occur. They also show the risk levels that derive from the various combinations of severity and probability. A review of three- and four-dimensional risk assessment systems is given in Chapter 10, Three- and Four-Dimensional Numerical Risk-Scoring Systems. ... 

The unwanted outcomes in maintenance operations can be grouped into two main categories (1) technical malfunctions, which may weaken system safety and reliability, and (2) occupational risks harming the worker s health immediately or over time (accident risks, ergonomics risks, exposures). The technical malfunctions can be the result of human error during a maintenance operation. For example, a part can be replaced with the wrong component, the component can be installed incorrecdy into the system, or the system can be reassembled in the wrong way. This kind of human error has been explored in various publications, such as Kumamoto and Henley (1996), Reason (1997), Dekker (2006), and Reason and Hobbs (2003). The technical malfunctions can result also from component and system failures or breakdowns. 

CATEGORY 2 Substances fiiat, on die basis of evidence from studies in experimental animals, can be presumed to have die potential to be harmful to human healdi following single exposure... 

Risk assessment is a process that commences with hazard identification and analysis that produces an estimate of the severity of harm or damage that may result if an incident or exposure occurs, followed by an estimate of the probability of an incident or exposure occurring and concluding with a risk category (e.g.. Low, Moderate, Serious, High). 

Assuming that these administrative improvements are made, the risk assessment group decided that the Probability of occurrence of an illness from a chemical exposure would be Seldom (2) and that the Severity of harm expected would be Negligible (2). Thus, the Risk Score is 4—in the Low Risk Category. 

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