Household hazardous chemicals

Chemical compatibility tests using U.S. EPA Method 909040 should always be performed for hazardous waste sites, but some municipal waste sites also contain hazardous, nondegradable materials. U.S. EPA conducted a 5-year study of the impact of municipal refuse on commercially available liner materials and found no evidence of deterioration within that period. However, in a current study of leachate quality in municipal landfills, the Agency has discovered some organic chemical constituents normally found in hazardous waste landfill facilities. Apparently, small quantities of household hazardous waste enter municipal sites or are disposed of as small quantity generator wastes. As a result of these findings, U.S. EPA developed a position on the need for chemical compatibility tests for thousands of municipal waste disposal sites. 

Human activities are associated with the use and disposal of a variety of chemicals and chemical products. This is the situation for a householder, a laboratory student, and also the industry worker. Many materials have properties that make them hazardous. They can create physical (fire, explosion) or health hazards (toxicity, chemical bums). However, there are many ways to work with chemicals which can both reduce the probability of an accident and reduce the consequences should an accident occur. Risk minimization depends on safe practices, appropriate engineering controls for chemical containment, the proper use of personnel protective equipment, use of the least amount of material necessary, and substitution of a less-hazardous chemical for a more hazardous one. Before beginning any chemical processing or operation, ask What would happen if. .. The answer to this question requires understanding of the hazards associated with chemicals, the equipment, and the procedure involved. The hazardous properties of the material and its intended use will dictate the precautions to be taken. 

Household Hazardous Waste Facility - Waste chemicals may be disposed through a county household hazardous waste facility (HHW) or through a county contracted household hazardous waste disposal company. Not all counties have a program to accept waste from schools. Verify with your county HHW facility that they can handle your waste prior to making arrangements. 

To achieve the goal of safe use of chemical substances by different sections of society (e.g., students, researchers, skilled and semiskilled workers, and householders), it is important to provide written instructions on the properties of the chemicals. The factors to be considered to evaluate the possible risks of hazardous chemical substances could be either general or specific ... 

Some communities require individual households to separate glass, plastic, and paper, while other programs have installed systems to separate the items at a plant and then sell them to manufacturers. The special collection of hazardous chemical wastes has also been initiated in communities that either recycle them or dispose of them more safely than in a landfill. Several things, besides saving space in landfills, are then accomplished with recycling programs. One is a cost benefit to the municipality and another is a decrease in the exploitation of natural resources, such as trees, metals, and petroleum. 

The three primary ways household hazardous products impact our health and the environment are through their manufacture, usage, and disposal. When one purchases a hazardous product for the home, it creates a market for these toxic chemicals. Once we open the container to use the substance, the vapors released and the water contaminated can have an unhealthy effect on humans, marine life, and water and air quality. Long after the need to use that cleansing... 

This huge data file covers over 4500 potentially hazardous chemical substances. It contains information on human exposure, industrial hygiene, emergency-handling procedures, environmental fate, regulatory requirements, and related areas. All data are referenced and derived from a core set of books, government documents, technical reports and selected primary journal literature. HSDB is peer-reviewed by the Scientific Review Panel (SRP), a committee of experts in the major subject areas within the data bank s scope. (Data-Star, DIMDI, STN Easy, TOXNET available as part of TOMES PLUS by Micromedex). Household Products Database ... 

MSDS Toxicologists apply mathematical models and knowledge of similar substances to toxicity data to estimate safe human exposure levels. How can you obtain this information Every employer is required to keep Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) of the potentially hazardous chemicals they use in their workplace. The MSDS describe possible health effects, clothing and eye protection that should be worn, and first-aid steps to follow after exposure. You can also consult the Household Products Database, which provides health and safety information on more than 5000 commonly used products. 

Domestic refuse would normally produce leachate with the highest BOD (high strength leachate) but may be low in individual hazardous components. However, even domestic refuse will not be free of hazardous materials. According to Jones-Lee and Lee (1993), it has been estimated that each person (in the USA) contributes 4 litres.yr of hazardous chemicals to their household waste stream. These chemicals can include pesticides, paint residues, and mercury from fluorescent tubes and batteries. Commercial waste may also produce a high strength leachate, while waste classified as "inert" is, in effect, seldom inert and often contains a proportion of degradable components which may lead to the production of a leachate capable of [>ollution. 

Pesticide and similar containers, like oil bottles, are not accepted in most curbside and drop-off recycling programs because of the problems posed by contamination with these hazardous chemicals. Household pesticide containers usually must be disposed of in the regular trash or in special collection of hazardous wastes. However, there are opportunities for recycling such containers when they are generated in the agricultural sector, where the much larger volumes make collection more viable. 

Hazardous chemicals Toxic chemicals Virgin or waste materials Household hazardous waste... 

There are several public health and environmental hazards present in earthquake waste. The main hazards are rotten food, asbestos, fecal-contaminated material (from broken wastewater pipes), treated timber, industrial waste (chemicals, paints, etc.), and household hazardous wastes (oils, pesticides, etc.). It is important that these wastes are identified and appropriate management approaches are put in place to protect public and environmental health. As a minimum, workers should wear correct personal protective equipment (suitable for the hazard), and hazardous wastes should be removed from properties prior to demolition work to reduce the volume of contaminated waste. It is likely that... 

By US law, every worker must be informed about the potential dangers of the chemicals that they encounter in the workplace (OSHA - Hazard Communication Standard 29 CFR 1910.1200). This includes common chemicals, such as household dishwasher soaps. It is the responsibility of managers to keep workers informed about the chemicals being used and their potential hazards. Chemical manufacturers must provide users with MSDSs on all their chemicals. These MSDSs must be made available to all workers. There are MSDSs on aU kinds of chemical, ranging from the toner used in copiers, to common household detergents, to really hazardous chemicals such as hydrofluoric acid (HF). Information on environmental aspects of processing can be obtained from the Center for Environmental Research Information. 

As stated previously, a battery is an electrochemical device with the ability to convert chemical energy to electrical energy to provide power to electronic devices. Household batteries may also contain cadmium, mercury, copper, zinc, lead, manganese, nickel, and lithium, which may create a hazard when disposed incorrectly. The potential problems or hazards of household batteries are similar to that of vehicle batteries. 

Many materials in common business and household use, such as cleaners and solvents, can pose chemical reactivity hazards. The potential often exists for them to be combined with other materials with which they will... 

This profile of a simultaneously zealous and anxious community is not unique to Columbus, Ohio. A survey of U.S. households conducted in 2001 asking people how they manage their lawns and how they feel about the risks and hazards associated with turf care, suggests a nation of similarly ambivalent citizens. The survey revealed that those who apply chemicals to their lawns (controlling for income and education) are statistically more likely than nonchemical users to believe that home lawn-care practices generally have a negative impact on local water quality and that lawn-care services have a negative impact on local water quality. People who use chemicals tend to think they are worse for the environment than those who do not. 

Think how many carcinogens are household names asbestos, cigarette smoke (a mixture of several thousand chemical compounds), DES, dioxin, saccharin, arsenic, PCBs, radon, EDB, Alar. Hundreds more of these substances, some very obscure, are known to the scientific and medical community, and many of these are scattered throughout the land at thousands of hazardous waste sites similar to Love Canal. People are exposed to these dreadful substances through the air they breathe, the water they drink and bathe in, and the foods they eat. Chemicals can also produce many other types of health damage, some very serious, such as birth defects and damage to our nervous and immune systems. 

Small quantities of hazardous solid wastes (such as potassium dichromate, lead nitrate, silver nitrate, asbestos, etc.), liquid chemicals (such as chloroform, PCB, methylene chloride, etc.), petrochemicals (such as gasoline. No. 2 fuel oil, etc.), or pure metals (such as mercury, sodium, etc.), which are stored in bottles or cans, however, are not considered to be hazardous household products. Accordingly these nonhousehold hazardous solid wastes, even in small quantities, can only be properly disposed of by licenced or certified environmental professionals. 

Pesticides are chemical or biological substances intended to control weeds, insects, fungi, rodents, bacteria, and other pests. They protect food crops and livestock, control household pests, promote agricultural productivity, and protect public health. The importance of pesticides to modern society can be summarized by a statement made by Norman E. Borlaug, the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize winner Let s get our priorities in perspective. We must feed ourselves and protect ourselves against the health hazards of the world. To do that, we must have agricultural chemicals. Without them, the world population will starve [1]. 

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