Potential catastrophe

It is prophetic that Firket (1), in speaking about public anxiety about potential catastrophes, said, "This apprehension was quite justified, when we think that proportionately, the public services of London, for example, might be faced with the responsibility of 3200 sudden deaths if such phenomenon occurred there" (p. 1192). In 1952, such a catastrophe occurred (see Section III,C). 

Beyond these indirect costs, there are future costs associated with new or more stringent variations of existing environmental legislation. We also need to recognize that all operations, especially those within complex industry sectors like petrochemicals, carry liabilities and exposures to potential catastrophic releases. Systems do fail for a variety of reasons, leading to unplarmed and sometimes innocent mistakes, that may result in third-party exposures for environmental damages or health risk exposures. These costs are related to legal fees, loss in consumer confidence, and subsequent losses in market shares for the products a company sells, as well as the clean-up associated with the spill or release. 

Contacting Uie manufacturer would help clarify any uncertainUes concerning the chemicals being used mid could also, in Uie event Uiat it has been discovered Uiat Uic manufacturer lias made an error in the production or delivery of a certain chemical, prevent a potential catastrophe elsewhere caused by the use of the same chemical. 

Anaphylaxis is the most dramatic and potentially catastrophic manifestation of allergic disorders. It can affect virtually any organ including the cardiovascular system. Cardiovascular collapse and hypotensive shock in anaphylaxis have been attributed to peripheral vasodilation, enhanced vascular permeability and plasma leakage, rather than any direct effect on the myocardium. However, there is increasing experimental and clinical evidence that the human heart is a site and target of anaphylaxis. 

To better understand managed care and the reasons for its growth, it is useful to discuss the evolution of payment mechanisms for health care from no insurance, to traditional indemnity insurance, to managed care. In the no-insurance model, the patient selects a health care provider and then pays the provider directly for health care goods and services. The choice of health care provider and the type and number of services provided are limited only by the financial constraints of the patient. The problem with this model is that the patient is exposed to potentially catastrophic health care expenses. Health insurance was developed as a way to protect patients against this risk. Health insurance often is provided through the employer and prior to the mid-1980s was likely to be indemnity fee-for-service insurance. In this traditional insurance... 

To avoid legal glitches when claiming compounds, claim important compounds individually in independent claims. It costs more up front, but helps avoid expensive and potentially catastrophic patent defeating legal glitches later. If you do use dependent claims, make them all dependent on a broad, independent Claim 1. 

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection uses the TXDS method of consequence analysis to estimate potentially catastrophic quantities of toxic substances, as required by the New Jersey Toxic Catastrophe Prevention Act (TCPA). An acute toxic concentration (ATC) is defined as the concentration of a gas or vapor of a toxic substance that will result in acute health effects in the affected population and 1 fatality out of 20 or less (5% or more) during a 1-hr exposure. ATC values, as proposed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, are estimated for 103 extraordinarily hazardous substances and are based on the lowest value of one of the following (1) the lowest reported lethal concentration (LCLO) value for animal test data, (2) the median lethal concentration (LC50) value from animal test data multiplied by 0.1, or (3) the IDLH value. 

Because of the possibility of unrecognized exothermic reactions at higher temperatures, DSC tests should be run at 400°C to determine if potentially catastrophic exotherms occur in a region that can be entered by having an uncontrolled exotherm in the lower temperature range. 

Is there a need to improve coverage of potentially catastrophic reactive hazards under the OSHA Process Safety Management (PSM) Standard If so, what approaches should be pursued ... 

Several explosions or violent decompositions dining distillation of aldoximes may be attributable to presence of peroxides arising from autoxidation. The peroxides may form on the -C=NOH system (both aldehydes and hydroxylamines perox-idise [1]) or perhaps arise from unreacted aldehyde. Attention has been drawn to an explosion hazard inherent to ketoximes and many of their derivatives (and not limited to them). The hazard is attributed to inadvertent occurence of acidic conditions leading to highly exothermic Beckmann rearrangement reactions accompanied by potentially catastrophic gas evolution. Presence of acidic salts (iron(III)... 

Existing knowledge on perchloric acid and its salts was reviewed extensively in 1960 in a monograph including the chapters Perchloric Acid Alkali Metal, Ammonium and Alkaline Earth Perchlorates Miscellaneous Perchlorates Manufacture of Perchloric Acid and Perchlorates Analytical Chemistry of Perchlorates Perchlorates in Explosives and Propellants Miscellaneous Uses of Perchlorates Safety Considerations in Handling Perchlorates [1], There is a shorter earlier review, with a detailed treatment of the potentially catastrophic acetic anhydride-acetic acid-perchloric acid system. The violently explosive properties of methyl, ethyl and lower alkyl perchlorate esters, and the likelihood of their formation in alcohol-perchloric acid systems, are stressed. The instability of diazonium perchlorates, some when damp, is discussed [2],... 

Like the previous edition, the book remains focused primarily on investigating process-related incidents that present realized or potential catastrophic consequences (that is, accidents as well as near misses). However, readers will find that the methodologies, tools, and techniques described in the following chapters may also be applied when investigating other types of occurrences such as reliability, quality, and occupational health and safety incidents. 

In 2006, however, focus shifted to another rare but potentially catastrophic event known as late stent thrombosis, which, in contrast to subacute thrombosis, occurs months to years after stent placement. It usually occurs before endothelialization is complete. For bare metal stents, this takes a few weeks. However, in drug eluting stents, this process of endotheliazation is delayed [68]. This complication... 

Agranulocytosis is a potentially catastrophic idiosyncratic reaction that usually appears within the first 3 months of therapy. Although the incidence is extremely low (except for clozapine), mortality is high. Thus, any fever, sore throat, or cellulitis is an indication for discontinuing the antipsychotic and immediately conducting white blood cell and differential counts. 

Thus, in the section above, we discussed the potentially catastrophic events that can take place when there is interaction and amplification between a number of key events. 

The anabolic processes by which macromolecules are produced are obviously important in life processes. Remarkably, these processes generally occur properly, making the needed materials when and where needed. However, in some cases things go wrong with potentially catastrophic results. This can occur through the action of toxicants and is a major mode of the action of toxic substances. 

A solid propellant rocket motor is quite simple in concept, although in practice a complete motor is more complex. As shown in Fig. 37.15, the rocket propellant is contained within a case, which may be metal or a reinforced high-performance composite. Frequently, the case is internally shielded by a bonded layer of insulation. The insulation is coated with a liner that bonds the propellant to the insulation. The integrity of the propellant-to-liner bond is of utmost importance failure at this interface during a motor firing can result in a sudden increase in the area of propellant surface exposed to combustion, with potentially catastrophic results. 

In comparison with the potential catastrophe of urban fires, the hazards of fire in the wildlands cannot be ignored or underestimated. Simultaneously with the fire in Chicago on October 8, 1871, wildland fires in Wisconsin and Michigan burned four million acres and killed 1,152 persons, more than four times the number of people killed in the Chicago fire. 

The use of patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) (SEDA-15, 68) highlights the importance of adequate monitoring, in order to avoid potentially catastrophic adverse effects, such as respiratory depression. With PCA, patients generally use less morphine but still achieve the same degree of pain control (7). This supports the view that selfadministration of opioids does not put patients at risk of over-medication or drug dependence. 

In the committee s view, the potentially catastrophic nature of chemical warfare (CW) or biological warfare (BW) and the potential utility of nuclear threats in deterring these most devastating types of attacks7 represent a very limited perspective of the threat that is now apparent. There are many other uses... 

A significant aspect of the responses to chemical events concerns when and how the event is communicated to local officials and the local public. While much of the focus of post-event response is necessarily on the requirements of the formal regulatory process, interactions with the affected local officials and public have important implications as well. From the perspectives of the public and their officials, chemical events are largely involuntary risks that are potentially catastrophic and of technological origin. These characteristics render chemical events and incidents subject to substantial social amplification in which the characteristics of the events interact with individuals perceptions of the risk associated with them and the pattern of communication with the public and their response to both the event and the communication (Kasperson, 1992 Kasperson et al., 1988). 

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