Hazard communication and hazardous materials

You should be familiar with various occupancies and locations in your community where hazardous materials are used, stored, transported, or produced. To accomplish this familiarization, you must complete pre-emergency planning and inspection activities. 

Fatal accident rate Lost-time injury rate Capital cost of accidents Number of plant/community evacuations Cost of business interruption Cost of workers compensation claims Number of hazardous material spills (in excess of a threshold) Tonnage of hazardous material spilled Tonnage of air, water, liquid and solid effluent Tonnage of polluting materials released into the environment Employee exposure monitoring Number of work related sickness claims Number of regulatory citations and fines Ecological impact of operations (loss or restoration of biodiversity, species, habitats)... 

Probably one of the most important safety and healtli standards ever adopted is tlie OSHA hazard communication standard, more properly known as tlie right to know laws. The liazard communication standard requires employers to communicate information to tlie employees on liazardous chemicals tliat e.vist witliiii the workplace. The program requires employers to craft a written luizard communication program, keep material safety data sheets (MSDSs) for all haztirdous chemicals at the workplace and provide employees with training on tliose hazardous chemicals, and assure tliat proper warning labels are in place. 

For the most part, future trends will be found in liazard accident prevention, not liazard analysis. To help promote liazard accident prevention, companies should start employee-training programs. These programs should be designed to alert staff and employees about tlie liazards tliey are exposed to on tlie job. Training should also cover company safety policies and tlie proper procedures to follow in case an accident does occur. A major avenue to reducing risk will involve source reduction of hazardous materials. Risk education and communication are two other areas tliat will need iniprovemcnt. 

Sites near e.visting plants conttiiuing hazardous materials and near congested communities should be avoided. 

Vulnerability analysis identifies areas in tlie community tliat may be affected or exposed, indviduals in tlie community who may be subject to injury or death from certain specific hazardous materials, and what facilities, property, or eiivironment may be susceptible to damage should a hazardous materials release occur. A comprehensive vulnerability analysis provides information on ... 

Community Right-to-know Act TSCA = Toxic Substance Control Act, RCRA = Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, HMTA = Hazardous Materials Transportation Act... 

DOT. 1997. Hazardous materials table, special provisions, hazardous materials communications, emergency response information, and training requirements. U.S. Department of Transportation. Code of Federal Regulahons. 49 CFR 172.101. 

Stutz DR, Ulin S. 1992. Basic and advanced life support. Hazardous materials injuries A handbook for pre-hospital care, 3rd ed. Bradford Communications Corporation, Beltsville, MD. 

NETCSC, Industrial Pretreatment and Hazardous Material Recognition for Small Communities, The National Environmental Training Center for Small Communities, West Virginia University, Morgan Town, WV, 1996. 

The purpose of the Dow Fire and Explosion Hazard Index (Dow, 1987) is to 1) quantify the expected damage of potential fire and explosion incidents in realistic terms, 2) identify equipment that would be likely to contribute to the creation or escalation of an incident and 3) communicate the fire and explosion risk potential to management. The Dow Index is the product of the Unit Hazard Factor and the Material Factor (Table 1). 

According to Mary Schiavo, another member of Motley Rice and a former Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Railroads are entrusted with vast access and right-of-way in our communities and our nation, but they hold such rights only insofar as they comply with the regulations governing safe operations of both rail and hazardous materials transport. Norfolk Southern and others failed to comply with these laws, regulations, and standards, and failed to put in place known and recommended practices which absolutely would have prevented this deadly crash. ... 

CAER Community Awareness and Emergency Response a program developed by the Chemical Manufacturers Association to provide guidance for chemical plant managers to assist them in cooperating with local communities to develop integrated hazardous materials response plans. 

Diversion The intentional movement of a hazardous material in a controlled manner so as to relocate it in an area where it will pose less harm to the community and the environment. 

North American Emergency Response Guidebook (A Guidebook for First Responders During the Initial Phase of a Hazardous Materials/Dangerous Goods Incident). Washington, D.C. U.S. Department of Transportation/Transport Canada/the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation for Mexico, 2000. 

On April 8, 1998, a runaway reaction during the production of Automate Yellow 96 dye initiated a sequence of events that led to an explosion and fire at the Morton International, Inc., plant in Paterson, New Jersey. On the day of the incident, flammable materials were released as the result of an uncontrolled rapid temperature and pressure rise in a 2,000-gallon kettle in which ortho-nitrochlorobenzene and 2-ethylhexylamine were being reacted. Nine employees were injured in the explosion and fire, including two seriously. Potentially hazardous materials were released into the community, and the physical plant was extensively damaged. 

These questions stress the point we emphasize here. Again, OSHA is not normally concerned about the environment, unless contamination of the environment (at the work site) might adversely impact the workers safety and health. The neighbors Again, OSHA s focus is the workers. One OSHA compliance officer explained to us that if the employer takes every necessary step to protect the employees from harm involving the use or production of hazardous materials, then the surrounding community should have little to fear. 

Making companies prepare plans which focus on safer chemical use has proved particularly successful in the USA. The benefits of mandatory pollution prevention planning have been demonstrated in the state of Massachusetts. Here, over 550 companies had to assess toxic use reduction options with technical help supplied by university and government experts. Toxic use reduction strategies included material substitution and product reformulation. Within ten years, industry has reduced the use of toxic chemicals by 40%, by-product waste by 58% and toxic emissions by 80%. A cost benefit analysis reveals that the same companies saved a total of Saved a total of USD 14 million (Euro 18.76 million) overthis period through the adoption of more efficient and safer processes. The programme is ongoing and has been expanded to community outreach and assessment of substitutes forsome hazardous material flows and products within the state. 

EPA. 1987b. Hazardous materials table and hazardous materials communications regulations. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Code of Federal Regulations. 40 CFR 116.4. 

The Emergency Planning and Community-Right-to-Know Act was signed into law. Companies involved in the production and handling of hazardous materials must submit material safety data sheets (MSDS) or lists of chemicals kept on site. Companies must report inventories of specific chemicals kept in the workplace and an annual release of hazardous materials into the environment. 

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