Hazardous chemical classification

The Hazard Communication Standard The Globally Harmonized System Hazardous Chemical Classification Safety Data Sheets How to Read a Safety Data Sheet How to Read a Container Label Employee Information Training Working with Chemical Hazards... 

Note Tare weight, (empty container) loaded weight (full) container) and contents should be clearly mentioned along with hazardous chemical classification and precautionary measures on the tankers. A checklist shotrld be prepared and shotrld be available with the driver. Drain valves should have a bhnd fixed (at outlet) to prevent accidental draining. The operating spindles shotrld be locked. 

The values of the factors are determined on the basis of the Dow s Fire Explosion Hazard Index Classification Guide (Dow, 1987). The Guide includes rules and tables, which cover well the most chemical substances and unit operations. 

Revised proposals put forward by a working group of the European Commission for the classification and labelling of hazardous chemicals are examined. Proposals relating to a number of individual chemicals are reviewed. EUROPEAN COMMISSION... 

An examination is made of the provisions of Italian legislation relating to the classification, packaging and labelling of hazardous chemicals. 

European Union and Italian legislation relating to hazardous chemicals is reviewed, with particular reference to classification and labelling requirements. 

The small amount of mixed terphenyls that are sold as such, are shipped in the form of flaked solids in 22.7 kg multiwall bags. The U.S. freight classification is Plastics, synthetic other than liquid, NOIBN. Like biphenyl, mixed terphenyls fall under the hazardous chemical criteria of the OSHA Hazard Communication Standard (29 CFR 1910.1200). 

The terphenyl—quaterphenyl heat-transfer medium (Table 4), sold as Therminol 75 heat-transfer fluid, is shipped in drums, tank car, or tank truck lots. Its U.S. freight classification is Heat-Transfer Media, NOIBN. The material does not require a DOT hazardous material label, but does fall under the hazardous chemical criteria of the OSHA Hazards Communications Standard (19 CFR 1910.1200). 

Over the last several decades, separate classification systems have been developed for radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes based on a variety of considerations, the most prevalent being the source of the waste. These classification systems have served their intended purpose of facilitating development of health-protective strategies for waste management and disposal reasonably well. However, they have exhibited a number of shortcomings and undesirable ramifications, which indicate that a new approach to classification of hazardous wastes would be beneficial. 

This Report is concerned with classification of hazardous wastes. Wastes are materials deemed to have no further beneficial use to their present custodian, although these materials may be useful to others. Unless otherwise indicated, the term hazardous as used in this Report refers to the presence of radionuclides, hazardous chemicals, or both. This term also may refer to certain characteristics of materials that pose a hazard, such as ignitability, corrosivity, or reactivity. 

The primary purpose of this Report is to present NCRP s recommendations on classification of hazardous wastes. The Report is directed at a multidisciplinary audience with different levels of technical understanding in the fields of radiation and chemical risk assessment and radioactive and chemical waste management. Anew hazardous waste classification system is proposed that differs from the existing classification systems for radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes in two fundamental respects. First, hazardous waste would be classified based on considerations of health risks to the public that arise from disposal of waste. Hazardous waste would not be classified based, for example, on its source. Second, the classification system would apply to any hazardous waste, and separate classification systems for radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes would not be retained. In the proposed system, waste would be classified based only on its properties, and the same rules would apply in classifying all hazardous wastes. 

The objective of the study presented in this Report was to address difficulties (elaborated, for example, in Sections 1.3.1.5 and 1.4) that have arisen from use of the existing classification systems for radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes. An important impetus for... 

This Section summarizes the separate classification systems that have been developed for radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes. Impacts of the two classification systems on management and disposal of mixed wastes are also described. 

Management and disposal of many wastes that contain hazardous chemicals are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under authority of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). In the classification system for hazardous chemical wastes specified in 40 CFR Part 261, waste is classified as hazardous by its characteristics or by listing. 

The system for classification and disposal of hazardous chemical waste developed by EPA under RCRA does not apply to all wastes that contain hazardous chemicals. For example, wastes that contain dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), or asbestos are regulated under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). In addition, the current definition of hazardous waste in 40 CFR Part 261 specifically excludes many wastes that contain hazardous chemicals from regulation under RCRA, including certain wastes produced by extraction, beneficiation, and processing of various ores and minerals or exploration, development, and use of energy resources. Thus, the waste classification system is not comprehensive, because many potentially important wastes that contain hazardous chemicals are excluded, and it is not based primarily on considerations of risks posed by wastes, because the exclusions are based on the source of the waste rather than the potential risk. 

Comparison of Classification Systems for Radioactive and Hazardous Chemical Wastes... 

The existing classification systems for radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes in the United States and approaches to disposal of... 

The similarities are of the following kinds. First, neither classification system includes a general class of exempt waste. Second, neither classification system is comprehensive, because the classification system for radioactive waste distinguishes between fuel-cycle and NARM waste and the classification system for hazardous chemical waste excludes many potentially important wastes that contain hazardous chemicals. Third, any waste must be managed and disposed of in a manner that is expected to protect public health and the environment. In addition, the approach to disposal of hazardous chemical waste under RCRA, which emphasizes monitoring of releases from disposal facilities and an intention to maintain institutional control over disposal sites for as long as the waste remains hazardous, is applied to disposal of uranium or thorium mill tailings under AEA. 

There also are two important differences. First, the classification system for radioactive waste from the nuclear fuel cycle includes different classes that are defined based essentially on the source of the waste. In addition, some classes of fuel-cycle waste (e.g., high-level waste) often, but not always, contain higher concentrations of radionuclides than other classes (e.g., low-level waste) and, thus, pose a greater hazard in waste management and disposal. The classification system for hazardous chemical waste does not distinguish between hazardous wastes based on their source, with the exception of the K list of wastes from specific sources. Additionally, hazardous chemical wastes are not further classified based on their relative hazard (i.e., there is only one class of hazardous chemical waste). 

The term mixed waste refers mainly to waste that contains radionuclides regulated under AEA and hazardous chemical waste regulated under RCRA. Dual regulation of mixed waste has no effect on classification, management, and disposal of the hazardous chemical component or on classification of the radioactive component. The effects of dual regulation of mixed waste on management and disposal of the radioactive component are summarized as follows ... 

NCRP s recommendations on classification of hazardous wastes are intended to address deficiencies and inconsistencies in the separate systems for classification and disposal of radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes in the United States summarized previously. The most important of these include ... 

NCRFs recommendations on classification of hazardous wastes are based on two principles. First, a classification system should be generally applicable to any waste that contains radionuclides, hazardous chemicals, or mixtures of the two (i.e., the system should be comprehensive). Second, waste that contains hazardous substances should be classified based on considerations of health risks to the public that arise from waste disposal, because permanent disposal is the intended disposition of materials having no further use. 

Based on these principles, the essence of NCRP s recommendations is that waste that contains radionuclides or hazardous chemicals should be classified in relation to the types of disposal systems (technologies) that are expected to be generally acceptable in protecting public health. Specifically, the classification system developed in this Report includes three classes of waste defined as follows ... 

Thus, the basic elements of the proposed classification system are, first, that there should be a general class of waste that contains sufficiently small concentrations of radionuclides or hazardous chemicals that it can be exempted from regulatory control as hazardous material and, second, that there should be two classes of nonexempt waste that contain increasing concentrations of hazardous substances and require dedicated disposal systems that provide increased waste isolation. 

Legal impediments to development of a new waste classification system would be ignored. These include, for example, the distinction between radioactive waste that arises from operations of the nuclear fuel-cycle and NARM waste, which is based on provisions of AEA, the distinction between radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes, which is based on provisions of AEA and RCRA, and the provision in the National Energy Policy Act that prohibits NRC from establishing a general class of exempt radioactive waste. 

For the purpose of developing the waste classification system described in Section 1.4.1, a simple method of evaluating risks to the public posed by radionuclides and hazardous chemicals in waste is needed. The term risk generally refers to the probability of harm, combined with the potential severity of that harm. In the context of hazardous waste disposal, risk is the probability of a response in an individual or the frequency of a response in a population taking into... 

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