Health and safety problems

We address here the problem of human exposure to toxic and dangerous chemicals, including the workers in chemical plants and the public in homes or at work. 

Plant workers are exposed to the raw materials, intermediates, products, byproducts, and waste discharge. Regulations for the protection of plant workers are under the jurisdiction of the OSHA, and supported by the research arm of National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). They issue a number of enforceable guidelines for safety, and they also issue advisories that are suggested but not required. We concentrate here on hazards that are specific to chemicals flammability, and toxicity through breathing the air and by skin exposure. 

The protection of the public in the safety of food, drinks, and drugs is entrusted to agencies such as the FDA and the ERA. They also issue many documents on what is not safe and the suggested procedures on how to handle and to dispose of them. 

One of the best known explosion disasters took place in Flixborough, England, in 1974. Nypro Limited manufactured 70,000 tons/year of caprolactam as intermediate for the manufacturing of nylon. This is done by air oxidation of cyclohexane to cyclo-hexanol, with the help of a number of catalysts in the reactors. At that time, cracks developed in the reactor combined with pipe rupture, which released 30 tons of cyclohexane in a cloud. It was ignited by an unknown source and exploded, which resulted in 28 deaths and 36 injured, and the fire burned for 10 days. This disaster was also devastating to the future of the company. 

The most basic concept in toxicology is that of the lethal dose. Paraselsus (1493-1541) said that All substances are poisons, there is none which is not a poison. The right dose 

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Potential health and safety problems of acryflc polymers occur in their manufacture (159). During manufacture, considerable care is exercised to reduce the potential for violent polymerizations and to reduce exposure to flammable and potentially toxic monomers and solvents. Recent environmental legislation governing air quality has resulted in completely closed ketde processes for most acryflc polymerizations. Acryflc solution polymers are treated as flammable mixtures. Dispersion polymers are nonflammable. 

Most general-purpose release agents have been developed for this market in part because of their low toxicity and chemical inertness and do not usually present health and safety problems. Some of the solvent dispersions require appropriate care in handling volatile solvents, and many supphers are offering water-based alternatives. Some of the sohds, particularly finely divided hydrophobic sohds, can also present inhalation problems. Some of the metallic soaps are toxic, although there is a trend away from the heavier, more toxic metals such as lead. The reactive type of release coating with monomers, prepolymers, and catalysts often presents specific handling difficulties. The potential user with health and safety questions is advised to consult the manufacturer directly. 

Metal Finishing and Corrosion Control. The exceptional corrosion protection provided by electroplated chromium and the protective film created by applying chromium surface conversion techniques to many active metals, has made chromium compounds valuable to the metal finishing industry. Cr(VI) compounds have dominated the formulas employed for electroplating (qv) and surface conversion, but the use of Cr(III) compounds is growing in both areas because of the health and safety problems associated with hexavalent chromium and the low toxicity of trivalent chromium (see... 

Working alone presents a specific health and safety problem, and companies, department managers and contractors must ensure that there is a safe system whereby ... 

Seawater systems should be designed to avoid excessive water velocities, turbulence, aeration, particulates in suspension, rapid changes in piping section and direction. Likewise, extended periods of shutdown should also be avoided since stagnation of contained seawater, will result in bacterial activity and HjS production with consequential and perhaps serious corrosion and health and safety problems. 

S2C12, a by-product in the manufacture of carbon tetrachloride from carbon disulphide. Was used, dissolved in solvent naphtha, in the vulcanising of mbber by the cold cure process and the vapour cure process. The process was fraught with health and safety problems and has been superseded by low temperature accelerators and room temperature vulcanising (RTV) systems for silicone and polyurethane. 

Increased scrutiny of certain industrial solvents because of associated health and safety problems. 

All industries, especially the surfactant and detergent industries, have been heavily involved in various recent controversies such as health and safety problems, resource and energy conservation movements and so on. Under these circumstances, more emphasis has to be placed on key words SAFETY, RESOURCE SAVING and EFFICIENCY. Only by satisfying these three will there be the chance of developing new technologies and new products. 

Health and safety problems associated with polyester resins are related to styrene and its emission into the environment during mixing, application and curing. Inhalation and skin absorption are the main routes of... 

There may be health and safety problems with handling large volumes of acid or alkali. 

Pollutants that result in the presence of toxic gases, vapors, or fumes within the POTW in a quantity that may cause acute worker health and safety problems... 

Many commonly-used additives have been linked to environmental and health and safety problems. Table 3.4 lists known problems with several classes of additives. 

Guidance - can he specific to health and safety problems of an industry or of a particular process used in a number of industries. 

Target the occnpational health and safety problems specific to SMEs and identify the main priorities and major problems in the relevant system in Estonia. 

Vibrations of the human body or parts of the human body may cause annoyance, affect performance, or cause trauma. There are many conditions that produce local or general vibration of the body. Studies have identified some effects. Data in the literature are not complete, since experiments on vibration may cause injuries. Existing data provide a picture of vibration hazards and suggest controls to prevent vibration-induced health and safety problems. 

In 1983, the OSHA enacted the HAZCOM to confront the seriousness of this health and safety problem. The purpose is to ensure that the hazards from all chemicals produced or imported are evaluated and the hazard information transmitted downstream to all affected parties. The rule also guarantees the workers right to know about the hazardous chemicals in their workplaces therefore, it was often referred to as the right-to-know standard. After the passage of SARA, it has been typically referred to as the HAZCOM Standard. 

Health and safety aspects Handling powdered media (e.g. filter aids) can pose health and safety problems, and disposal of contaminated media may require special considerations. 

After the Flixborough incident in 1974 the HSE appointed a committee of experts, the Advisory Committee on Major Hazards, to consider the health and safety problems posed by major chemical sites and to make recommendations. This they did in three reports which identified a need for three basic elements of control ... 

This chapter has argued that it is generally more useful to attribute health and safety problems to a systemic, organisational or work... 

To summarise this section, it is not appropriate for a prevention agency to target its activities using compensation data. Such agencies must develop their own priorities, based on an independent assessment of the hazards. Moreover, they must actively construct their own data sources in order to identify health and safety problems not otherwise apparent. This is particularly important for occupational health issues which tend not to show up in compensation data. 

Chapter 4 discusses the many circumstances in which health and safety problems do not generate compensation costs and where employers thus have no economic incentive to attend to OHS. For example, occupational illnesses with long onset times, such as cancer, tend not to give rise to compensation claims and so impose no financial pressure on employers. Again, dangerous occurrences, such as gas leakages, may not in fact injure anyone, but if not responded to appropriately have the potential to cause death on some future occasion. Such problems require resolute action by the regulatory authorities in order to protect worker health and safety. 

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