Hazardous Materials Presence

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. 

Some hazardous materials require specialized containment that has a specific shape, which can give a clue to the identity of the contents. Some samples of characteristic shapes are  

Cylindriczd or eliptical containers with flat ends contain liquid at atmospheric pressure (for example, gasoline) 

Cylindrical or eliptical containers with rounded ends contain gzises under very high pressure (for example, liquefied petroleum gas) 

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Senses can be very valuable and give immediate clues to the presence of hazardous material. Unfortunately they... 

Fencing. Fencing can be installed around the perimeter of a contaminated site to restrict public access. Signs warning of the presence and potential danger of hazardous materials can be posted on the fence to further discourage unauthorized access to the site. 

The Dow and Mond Indexes provide a relative ranking of the hazards and risks in a chemical process plant. This is accomplished by assigning penalties and credits based on plant features such as the presence of hazardous materials and the safety devices which can mitigate any hazardous effects. Penalties and credits are then combined into a single hazard index for the process unit in question. 

Polymerization A process in which a hazardous materials is reacted in the presence of a catalyst of heat or light or with itself or another material to form a polymeric system, which often times is violent. 

He was a leader on the street, and in the committee rooms where the nitty-gritty of hazardous materials response in the United States is thrashed out. Chief John Eversole was approachable to all persons and eloquent in expressing his thoughts. He also had a definite command presence on an incident scene gained through long command experience. John, we are going to miss you. 

There are three major categories of filth and extraneous material that constitute contamination potentially hazardous, indicators of insanitation, and aesthetic defects (Zimmerman et al., 2003). Potentially hazardous material includes physical hazards such as hard or sharp objects, chemical hazards such as mites that can cause allergic reactions (Olsen, 1998), or insects that may carry food-borne diseases. Even if insects do not present a health hazard, the presence of insects as foreign matter in food is considered an indication of unsanitary conditions (Zimmerman et al., 2003). The presence of unsanitary conditions can be indicated by the presence of live or dead insects and by intact insects, fragments of insects, or insect products such as... 

Air Sampling Refers to the collection and analysis by instrument of samples of air to detennine the presence of hazardous materials. The reader should review Chapter 2 for the objectives and types of air sampling techniques. 

The waste classification system must be flexible so that it can accommodate special circumstances without need of a continuing series of separate classifications or ad hoc solutions. Common instances where flexibility is required include (1) taking the presence or absence of engineered waste forms into account, (2) providing for classification of small amounts of highly hazardous materials,... 

Mixed waste contains both radioactive and chemically hazardous materials such as toxic, corrosive, flammable, or explosive materials. The radioactive component may be either HLW or LLW. All liquid HLW is mixed waste, usually in the presence of organic solvents or heavy metals in addition to radioactive components. Disposal of mixed wastes is regulated by the EPA under the Resource Conservation and... 

Even when considered on a long term basis, there is considerable doubt that the presence of land filled battery metals such as lead, zinc, and cadmium would have the catastrophic environmental effects which some have predicted. Studies on 2000-year old Roman artifacts in the United Kingdom (Thornton 1995) have shown that zinc, lead and cadmium diffuse only very short distances in soils, depending on soil type, soil pH and other site-specific factors, even after burial for periods up to 1900 years. Another study in Japan (Oda 1990) examined nickel-cadmium batteries buried in Japanese soils to detect any diffusion of nickel or cadmium from the battery. None has been detected after almost 20 years exposure. Further, it is unclear given the chemical complexation behavior of the metallie ions of many battery metals exactly how they would behave even if metallic ions were released. Some studies have suggested, for example, that both lead and cadmium exhibit a marked tendency to complex in sediments and be unavailable for plant or animal uptake. In addition, plant and animal uptake of metals such as zinc, lead and cadmium has been found to depend very much on the presence of other elements such as iron and on dissolved organic matter (Cook and Morrow 1995). Until these behavior are better understood, it is unjustified to equate the mere presence of a hazardous material in a battery with the true risk associated with that battery. Unfortunately, this is exactly the method which has been too often adopted in comparison of battery systems, so that the true risks remain largely obscured. 

Consequence The direcf undesirable result of an incident outcome, specifically the impacts resulting from a release of a hazardous material. Consequence is generally a function of the hazards of the material released, the extent of the release, and the presence of receptors (people, ecosystems, properly, etc.). Hazard Inherent properly or characteristic of a material, system, or process that has the potential for causing serious injury to people and/or property or environmental damage. 

N. Daneshvar, M.H. RasouUfard, F. Hosseinzadeh, A.R. Khataee, Removal of C.I. Acid Orange 7 from aqueous solution by UV irradiation in the presence of ZnO nanopowder . Journal of Hazardous Materials, 143, 95-101, (2007). 

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