Health considerations, hazard

Here we shall restrict consideration to safety and health considerations that can be built in while the design is developing rather than the detailed hazard and operability studies that take place in the later stages of design. The three major hazards in process plants are fire, explosion, and toxic release. ... 

Care must be taken in handling radon, as with other radioactive materials. The main hazard is from inhalation of the element and its solid daughters which are collected on dust in the air. Good ventilation should be provided where radium, thorium, or actinium is stored to prevent build-up of the element. Radon build-up is a health consideration in uranium mines. Recently radon build-up in homes has been a concern. Many deaths from lung cancer are caused by radon exposure. In the U.S. it is recommended that remedial action be taken if the air in homes exceeds 4 pCi/1. 

This book is divided into five parts the problem, accidents, health risk, hazard risk, and hazard risk analysis. Part 1, an introduction to HS AM, presents legal considerations, emergency planning, and emergency response. This Part basically ser es as an oveiwiew to the more teclmical topics covered in the remainder of the book. Part 11 treats the broad subject of accidents, discussing fires, explosions and other accidents. The chapters in Parts 111 and Part IV provide introductory material to health and hazard risk assessment, respectively. Pai1 V examines hazaid risk analysis in significant detail. The thiee chapters in this final part include material on fundamentals of applicable statistics theory, and the applications and calculations of risk analysis for real systems. 

ADI not specified is applied to food substances of very low toxicity that, in the opinion of the Committee, do not represent a hazard to health. Consideration is also given to total dietary intake and use levels necessary to achieve the desired effect. 

A systematic safety analysis serves to identify events which lead to considerable hazards for the life and health of persons, endanger the environment ot valuable property... 

Of the vast range of chemicals and substances in use in industry, commerce and other areas of employment, many are harmless. However, there are also a considerable number of substances in use which have a high potential to cause harm and ill-health - substances hazardous to health usually referred to as hazardous substances. 

Develop SOPs relevant to safety and health considerations to be followed when laboratory work involves the use of hazardous chemicals. This is especially the case if your lab operations include the routine use of select carcinogens, reproductive toxins, and substances of acute toxicity. SOPs can function as stand-alone documents or supplemental information included as part of research notebooks, experiment documentation, or research proposals. The key idea with laboratories having SOPs is to ensure a process is in place so that an experiment is well thought out and includes and addresses relevant health and safety issues. 

Elliot, L.J., Halperin, W.E. and Landrigan, P.J. (1990). Perspectives on opportunities towards a hazard free bioprocessing environment. In Bioprocessing Safety, Worker and Community Safety and Health Considerations, Ed. Warren C. Hyer Jr., ASTM, Philadelphia, STP 1951, pp. 20-26. 

Radon, Rn At. no. 86, at. wt 222, mp—71°C, bp -61.8°C. Radon is an intermediate radioactive decay product of Ra. Rn, the most stable isotope of radon, is obtained as a gas from aqueous solutions of RaCl2 and has been used as a radiation source and as a gaseous tracer. It is a considerable hazard in uranium mines. In some areas, radon in basements and in ground water is a potential health hazard because of its radioactivity. The ground state electronic configuration of radon is [Xe]4f " 5d °6s 6p. Because radon is intensely radioactive, the chemistry of radon has only been investigated on the tracer scale. Radon forms compounds, particularly a fluoride (likely RnF2), and solid adducts between the fluoride and Lewis acid fluorides. 

Rooney, F. P., and Leavey, J., Safety and Health Considerations of anX-ray Lithography Source, in Hazard Assessment and Control Technology in Semiconductor Manufacturing, American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, pp. 265-269, Lewis Publishers, Chelsea, MI, USA (1989)... 

The objective of chemical safety testing is to prevent the introduction into the environment of chemicals that represent a significant health hazard to humans or to the immediate environment on which maintenance of the human species depends. For chemicals that must remain in the environment for one reason or another, safety testing can be used to establish a safe or tolerable exposure level. The potential benefit of test results from evaluations for genotoxicity applied to human health considerations can be substantiated by the early indications of genotoxic activity for vinyl chloride, tris-(2,3-dibromo-propyl) phosphate (TRIS), benzene, hycanthone, and the Japanese food additive 2-(2-furyl)-3-(5-nitrofuryl)acrylamide(AF-2). In some of these cases, mutagenic data were available before the chemicals were identified as animal carcinogens. 

Those working in a warehouse should put some thought into selection of chemicals. Safety and health considerations must be a part of the selection process. Three important categories of hazards must be examined when comparing the relative safety of different chemical products for the same task. The categories are fire and explosion potential, acute health effects, and chronic health effects. 

Activated carbon generally presents no particular health hazard as defined by NIOSH (62). However, it is a nuisance and mild irritant with respect to inhalation, skin contact, eye exposure, and ingestion. On the other hand, special consideration must be given to the handling of spent carbon that may contain a concentration of toxic compounds. 

Mixtures-. Special consideration should be given to the application of TLVs in assessing health hazards which may be associated with mixtures of two or more substances. 

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