Other Hazards

Construction sites often have many of the same hazards that are present in manufacturing operations and other nonconstruction workplaces. Some of the other hazards that are commonly found on 

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Whatever hazardous materials are involved, whether they be new produces, an existing product in a new package type, hazardous waste, or any other hazard category, the proposed packaging and all conditions which are expected to be incident to its use should be reviewed... 

Also, pilot plant and laboratory scale anaerobic studies have demonstrated successful treatment of wastewaters of 5,000 to 50,000 mg/L GOD from corn chips containing soluble and colloidal corn starch and protein, cheese whey, organic chemicals, food, bakeiy, breweiy, paper mill foul condensate, paint, and numerous other hazardous anci non-hazardous materials. 

IntensiHcation This involves using so little hazardous material that it does not matter if it all leaks out. For example, at Bhopal, methyl isocyanate (MIC), the material that leaked and killed over 2000 people, was an intermediate for which it was convenient but not essential to store. Within a few years many companies had reduced their stocks of MIC and other hazardous intermediates. 

For many plants handling monomers and other hazardous materials, sealless pumps are the first choice. They can practically eliminate the pump problems that can occur due to se leaks, which can include product loss, flammabihty, waste disposal, and exposure of personnel to hazardous vapors. 

Close proximity of hazardous processes may result in releases or other hazardous conditions in one process affecting the neighboring process areas, thereby resulting in escalation of the hazard. 

Primary concerns include the of loss of containment and the potential for exposure of operating personnel to hazardous materials the potential for other hazards such as fires or explosions and the ergonomic issues inherent in manipulating large, heavy containers. The first two concerns are of particular significance in batch operations, since operating personnel are often more frequently and more intimately exposed to the batch processes than is typically the case with continuous processes. 

Stores should be specially designed, constructed of non-combustible material, and located away from other hazards (e.g. brick coal bunkers are suitable for small samples, but purpose-built constructions with explosion-proof lights etc. are required for larger quantities). They should be designated No Smoking areas and be well labelled. 

Details of dangerous substances on site covered by the COMAH Regulations and of other hazardous materials on site. Details of technical advice the company can provide to assist an emergency response. 

NOTE - Petrochemical plants also generate significant amounts of solid wastes and sludges, some of which may be considered hazardous because of the presence of toxic organics and heavy metals. Spent caustic and other hazardous wastes may be generated in significant quantities examples are distillation residues associated with units handling acetaldehyde, acetonitrile, benzyl chloride, carbon tetrachloride, cumene, phthallic anhydride, nitrobenzene, methyl ethyl pyridine, toluene diisocyanate, trichloroethane, trichloroethylene, perchloro-ethylene, aniline, chlorobenzenes, dimethyl hydrazine, ethylene dibromide, toluenediamine, epichlorohydrin, ethyl chloride, ethylene dichloride, and vinyl chloride. 

Prepare and implement an emergency preparedness and response plan. Such a plan is required because of the large quantities of ammonia and other hazardous materials stored and handled on site. 

Connections to equipment are typically 50 mm and 80 mm for process vessels and exchangers, according to the size of the equipment. Each connection includes an accessible block valve. Double block valves are provided if required. A check valve should be included if overpressure or other hazard could result from reverse flow during simultaneous drainage from more than one vessel. Individual connections from the equipment are made into the top of the drain header. 

Often an organization will strive for the elimination of a specific toxic material from a given process. Alternatives will also have other hazards and risks that require an informed choice. The industrial hygienist, chemist, and safety engineer play an important role in developing the information for making the selection between alternatives. 

Workers involved in hazardous waste eleanup, handling hazardous materials or other hazardous substanees, faee a more serious safety and health risk than do most eonstruetion or manufaeturing operations. In addition to the typieal slips, trips, and falls found in other eonstruetion or manufaeturing operations, employees handling hazardous waste or ehemieals may eneounter a variety of other hazards ineluding fires, explosions, and health-related issues assoeiated with exposures to toxie substanees. 

In this book we will eoneentrate on governmental regulations as they relate to hazardous waste or other hazardous materials, how to eomply with speeifie requirements, and other best management praetiees (BMPs). We will foeus on eommereial (federal/state OSHA), DOE, and the Army Corps of Engineers operations. In addition to these requirements there may be other regulatory standards that have requirements pertinent to hazardous materials. 

Eor example, the federal Oeeupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulates asbestos, lead, and other hazardous substanees. It would be very diffieult to provide the reader with every regulatory ageney that may have jurisdietion over hazardous materials. It is not our intent to provide the reader with every detail. However, the information offered in this book ean aid the reader in general eompli-anee issues and assist in planning for safety. This, in the long run, will help to improve on-site safety performanee. 

Some hazards are obvious and you ean uneover them during safety reviews. Other hazards are less obvious and you ean only uneover them by eondueting a systematie analysis of eaeh job to identify potential hazards. 

Wliat other hazards not diseussed have the potential to eause an... 

Handling hazardous ehemieals has beeome part of most people s everyday living. Just eonsider gasoline, and how most people fill their own tanks. In the manufaeturing arena, ehemieals are eommonplaee. On hazardous waste sites there are a variety of unknown ehemieal substanees and other hazards that may take the form of a solid, liquid, or gas. The eflfeets of exposure to toxie ehemieals may either be immediate (e.g., aeid burns) or delayed (e.g., lung damage from inhaling asbestos). There are four routes of ehemieal exposure that exist ... 

Safety, health, and other hazards on the site [OSHA Referenee (ii)]... 

Does the personal proteetive equipment seleeted for employees in the exehision zone take aeeount of the need to reduee heat stress while also providing proteetion from ehemieal and other hazards at the site Are work operations seheduled to avoid physieally demanding work during periods of extreme heat ... 

W. R. Acorn. Code Compliance for Advanced Technology Facilities A Comprehensive Guide for Semiconductor and Other Hazardous Operations. Park Ridge, NJ Noyes Publications, 199.3. 

The major hazard on the site as a whole was the storage and use of chlorine. So much attention was devoted to this that other hazards received less attention than they should have. 

The most important lesson to be learned from Bhopal was missed by most commentators the material that leaked was not a product or raw material but an intermediate, and while it was convenient to store it, it was not essential to do so. Following Bhopal, the company concerned. Union Carbide, and other companies decided to greatly reduce their stocks of MIC and other hazardous intermediates. A year after the disaster, Union Carbide reported that stocks of hazai dous intermediates had been reduced by 15% [3]. 

Before any assessment can be performed, die team must be supplied with required documentation and process details. As widi other hazard identificadon steps, die following materials are usually needed ... 

Review entire fire and other hazards program with insurance representatives. Industrial insurance companies have excellent facilities for evaluating the associated problems. 

FPN No. 2) Piping without valves, checks, meters, and similar devices would not ordinarily introduce a hazardous condition even though used for flammable liquids or gases. Locations used for the storage of flammable liquids or of liquefied or compressed gases in sealed containers would not normally be considered hazardous unless also subject to other hazardous conditions. 

Insurers are aware of the importance of a management that, at all levels, is fully conscious of the fire and other hazards within its premises and consequently acts in a highly responsible way. An opinion of the standard of management is an important part of the insurance surveyor s report referred to earlier, and is obtained by observation of conditions in the premises and a scrutiny of the organization and systems that are in operation. 

Mechanical seals, which are typically installed in applications where no leakage can be tolerated, are described and discussed in this section. Toxic chemicals and other hazardous materials are primary examples of applications where mechanical seals are used. 

The behavior of the failure rate as a function of time can be gaged from a hazard plot. If data are plotted on exponential hazard paper, the derivative of the cumulative hazard function at some time is the instantaneous failure rate at that time. Since time to failure is plotted as a function of the cumulative hazard, the instantaneous failure rate is actually the reciprocal of the slope of the plotted data, and the slope of the plotted data corresponds to the instantaneous mean time to failure. For the data that are plotted on one of the other hazard papers and that give a curved plot, one can determine from examining the changing slope of the plot whether the tme failure rate is increasing or decreasing relative to the failure rate of the theoretical distribution for the paper. Such information on the behavior of the failure rate cannot be obtained from probability plots. 

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