Incidents exposure, chemical, fatal

Measures of Response for Substances Causing Deterministic Responses. For purposes of health protection in routine exposure situations, incidence has been the primary measure of deterministic response for both radionuclides and hazardous chemicals. Fatalities also are of concern for substances that cause deterministic responses, but only at doses substantially above the thresholds for nonfatal responses. Given that the objective of standards for health protection is to prevent the occurrence of deterministic responses, incidence is not modified by any subjective factors that take into account, for example, the relative severity of different nonfatal responses with respect to a diminished quality of life. Judgments about the importance of deterministic responses are applied only in deciding which responses are sufficiently adverse to warrant consideration in setting protection standards. 

Development of a comprehensive and risk-based hazardous waste classification system requires assumptions about the measure or measures of response (adverse health effects) from exposure to radionuclides and hazardous chemicals that should be used in classifying waste. Possible measures of response discussed in Section 3.2.3 include fatalities, incidence, or some combination of the two, such as total detriment (ICRP, 1991). The following sections discuss the measures of response from exposure to hazardous subtances that... 

Incidence. In the first option, the common measure of stochastic response from exposure to radionuclides and hazardous chemicals would be incidence, without any modifications to account for such factors as differences in lethality fractions for responses in different organs or tissues or expected years of life lost per fatality. Such modifications are intended to represent differences in the severity of different stochastic responses. 

Where there is usable estimation of human exposure, the lowest level should exceed this. Ideally, the intermediate-dose level(s) should produce minimal observable toxic effects. If more than one intermediate dose is used, the dose levels should be spaced to produce gradation of toxic effects. In the low and intermediate groups and in the controls, the incidence of fatalities should be low to permit a meaningful evaluation of the results. If application of the test chemical produces severe irritation, the concentration may be reduced. This reduction may result in a subsequent reduction in, or absence of, other toxic effects observed at the high-dose level. If the skin shows severe damage, it may be necessary to terminate the study and undertake a new study at lower concentrations. 

For repeated inhalation toxicity, at least three concentrations of the test chemical with a control and (when appropriate) a vehicle control (corresponding to the concentration of vehicle at the highest exposure level) should be used. Except for exposure to the test chemical, the control group should be handled in a manner identical to the test group. The highest concentration of test chemical should result in toxic effects but not produce an incidence of fatalities, which would prevent a meaningful evaluation of results. The lowest concentration should not produce evidence of toxicity. When there is a usable estimation of human exposure, the lowest concentration of test chemical should exceed this. 

It is estimated that there are 3.8 million cases of occupational diseases due to exposure to chemicals in the world each year. Of these, acute pesticide poisoning accounts for about 3 million cases. About 220,ci00 of these are fatal. Over 90 % of exposure incidents and about 99% of deaths take place in the third world countries [13]. German Development expert reports on the careless use of pesticides, in Sri Lanka — there they spread DDT with bare hands, people are powdered white , On the Antilles island of Trinidad a total... 

Safety and health information means the establishment s fatality, injury, and illness history OSHA 200 logs workers compensation claims nurses logs the results of any medical screening or surveillance employee safety and health complaints and reports environmental and biological exposure data information from prior workplace safety and health inspections materials safety data sheets (MSDSs) the results of employee symptom surveys safety manuals and health and safety warnings provided to the employer by equipment manufacturers and chemical suppliers information about occupational safety and health provided to the employer by trade associations or professional safety or health organizations and the results of prior accident and incident investigations at the workplace. 

This is the Process Safety Management (PSM) standard. OSHA originally promvdgated the PSM standard in 1992 in response to a number of catastrophic chemical-release incidents that occurred worldwide. The incidents spvu-red broad recognition in the safety community that accidental releases of highly hazardous chemicals can result in multiple worker injuries or fatalities. The main objective of the PSM standard is to prevent or minimize employee exposure to the hazards associated with uncontrolled releases of highly hazardous chemicals. 

Worldwide, industrial accidents that involve an extremely large number of casualties resulting from chemical exposures are rare. Between 1975 and 1999, 25 incidents involving more than 25 fatalities and 100 injured were recorded. 

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