Hazardous work general precautions

Gaseous fire extinguishing systems precautions for toxic and asphyxiating hazards (withdrawn) General fire precautions aboard ships being fitted out or under repair Eire precautions m pressurized workings Access to road tankers... 

People often lack respect for the power in compressed air because air is so common, and it is viewed as harmless. At sufficient pressures, compressed air can cause damage if an accident occurred. To minimize the hazards of working with compressed air, all safety precautions should be followed closely. Reasons for general precautions follow. 

It is important that health factors are kept in proper perspective. What hazards there may be in the case of oil products are avoided or minimized by simple precautions. For work involving lubricants (including cutting fluids and process oils) the following general precautions are recommended ... 

Many accidents occur because the operator or maintenance person does not understand the hazards involved or has not been instructed on the precautions to be taken. The policy document should identify the main hazards within the company with advice on which rules must be obeyed while carrying out a hazardous task. General rules should also be included to cover items such as untidy work areas, replacement of guards, the use of protective cloth-ing/equipment where appropriate, safe working practices in handling goods and materials, etc. It is essential that on the introduction of new products, processes, operations or plant and equipment that any hazards associated with these are brought to the attention of all concerned. 

Perchloryl fluoride generally reacts with electron-rich alkencs or with various carbanionie substrates (Scheme 1), where salts are usually prepared in situ and further react at low temperature or in some cases at room temperature temperature control must be taken into account. However. it has been pointed out several times that serious explosions may occur and for this reason the reactions are potentially hazardous and safety precautions must be taken when working with this reagent. Over the last twenty years fluorination reactions with perchloryl fluoride have been partially discussed in several monographs6 8 and review papers.9 12... 

Working in the confines of the column is hazardous. Appropriate safety precautions are required to minimize the hazards. Several of these precautions are required by law (405) OSHA standards eire expected to be out soon. Some general precautions for installation, removal, inspection, and cleaning work performed inside the column are listed below. These are based on references 5,7,8,131,153,185,192,210,268,274,405, and 416, supplemented by the author s experience. 

On completion of the risk assessment, the site manager, in conjunction with a specialist contractor if one is to be used, will draw up a method statement and a programme of work. This will detail the methods, plant and equipment to be used, general precautions and any special requirements for dealing with health hazards, and the sequencing of work. The details and procedures required for any permit to work systems should also be included. This method statement and programme of work will be issued to the supervisor responsible for the work on site prior to the commencement of the work. 

General precautions for handling all laboratory chemicals previously outlined in this manual should be adopted, along with specific guidelines for particular chemicals. Exposure to hazardous chemicals should be minimized. For work with substances that present special hazards, special precautions shall be taken. One should assume that any mixture will be more hazardous than its most hazardous component and that all substances of unknown hazard are hazardous. Refer to the material safety data sheet (MSDS) for specific information about a chemical or product containing hazardous chemicals. 

The radioisotopes of einsteinium are highly unstable and radioactive. The small amount of the element and its compounds produced are not likely to be available in most laboratories. Thus, they do not pose any general hazard except in the case of scientists working with nuclear materials who must take precautions in handling exotic elements. 

With or without an MSDS, however, caution in chemical handling should be observed. As a general guideline, worker and student exposures to laboratory chemicals should be kept to a minimum. Because so many laboratory chemicals are hazardous to humans in some way, conservative risk assessment should be employed. Persons in the laboratory should assume that personal protection is required whenever they are working with chemicals. Chemicals of unknown toxicity initially should be treated as toxic with respect to exposure during work performed in the laboratory. For work with chemicals of known toxicity, appropriate precautions should be taken. When working with mixtures of chemicals, the risk of the mixture as a whole should be assumed at least to equal the risk for the most toxic component of the mixture. 

Hazards to personnel who work with Pu in the laboratory arise primarily from two causes. First, Pu is extremely poisonous because of its hi specific alpha activity, long biological baU-life, and tendency to concentrate in the bone. Second, inadvertent criticality may occur. A full discussion of these hazards is beyond the scope of this review, but some general comments concerning precautions and techniques can be made. 

In general, the polymerization of vinyl chloride may be carried out in bulk, solution, suspension, and in emulsion. Free-radical initiators are most commonly used although organometallic initiators and radiation initiation have been considered. Since the monomer is a gas at ordinary temperatures and pressures, suitable equipment is required for VCM polymerization. Sealed tubes and capped bottles have been used for this experimental work. In the use of bottles, safety precautions should be considered both from the standpoint of explosion hazards and the problems of exposure of personnel to VCM. 

NOTE As indicated in the introductory section, all experimental work with vinyl chloride must be carried out with extreme safety precautions with particular attention being paid to the hazards of inhalation of minute quantities of the monomer and various matters of working in restricted areas with appropriate warning signs. Since many of the cited experimental procedures were published before OSHA regulations went into effect, these may be quite hazardous and are only given in this chapter to illustrate the general principles that have been used. 

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