Reduction of hazards

The application of waste-management practices in the United States has recently moved toward securing a new pollution prevention ethic. The performance of pollution prevention assessments and their subsequent implementation will encourage increased activity into methods that 1 further aid in the reduction of hazardous wastes. One of the most important and propitious consequences of the pollution-prevention movement will be the development of life-cycle design and standardized hfe-cycle cost-accounting procedures. These two consequences are briefly discussed in the two paragraphs that follow. Additional information is provided in a later subsection. 

Instrument Purging for Reduction of Hazardous Area Classification... 

For the most part, future trends will be found in liazard accident prevention, not liazard analysis. To help promote liazard accident prevention, companies should start employee-training programs. These programs should be designed to alert staff and employees about tlie liazards tliey are exposed to on tlie job. Training should also cover company safety policies and tlie proper procedures to follow in case an accident does occur. A major avenue to reducing risk will involve source reduction of hazardous materials. Risk education and communication are two other areas tliat will need iniprovemcnt. 

South Carolina DHEC, Reduction of Hazardous Waste Legislative Summary 2004 Report, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, Columbia, SC, February 2005. 

Soil Cleanup, or remediation, of hazardous waste sites will often produce contaminated soil. Contaminated soil must be handled as hazardous waste if it contains a listed hazardous waste or if it exhibits a characteristic of hazardous waste. As with hazardous waste, land disposal of hazardous soil is prohibited until the soil has been treated to meet LDR standards. These contaminated soils, due to either their large volume or unique properties, are not always amenable to the waste codespecific treatment standards. Because of this, U.S. EPA promulgated alternative soil treatment standards in 268.49 in May 1998. The alternative soil treatment standards mandate reduction of hazardous constituents in the soil by 90% or 10 times UTS, whichever is higher. Removal of the characteristic is also required if the soil is ignitable, corrosive, or reactive. 

In the sector of electrical and electronic equipment, the RoHS Directive, as explained, has successfully resulted in reduction of hazardous chemicals in line with goals of the RISKCYCLE project and has reduced many problems. This raises... 

The introduction of EU directives on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment and Reduction of Hazardous Substances has highlighted the need for precise and repeatable elemental analysis of heavy metals in the plastics production process. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy has emerged as the most economical and effective analytical tool for achieving this. A set of certified standards, known as TOXEL, is now available to facilitate XRF analyses in PE. Calibration with TOXEL standards is simplified by the fact that XRF is a multi-element technique. Therefore a single set of the new standards can be used to calibrate several heavy elements, covering concentrations from trace level to several hundred ppm. This case study is the analysis of heavy metals in PE using an Epsilon 5 XRF spectrometer. 

Reduction of Hazardous Sulfide in Effluent from Sulfur Black Dyeing at Century Textiles, Bombay, India... 

Wang, L.K. Alternative COD Method for Reduction of Hazardous Waste Production, PB86-169323 US Department of Commerce, National Technical Information Service Springfield, VA, 1985 7 p. 

PACE. January 1986. Final Report Reduction of Hazardous Waste From Electroplating Pretreatment Facilities. Hazardous Waste Reduction Grant Program. PACE Laboratories, Inc. Minneapolis, MN. and on Behalf of Truth, Inc., Owatonna, MN. Prepared for Minnesota Waste Management Board. 

Sarokin, D. August 1985. "Reducing Hazardous Waste at the Source Case Studies of Organic Chemical Plants in New Jersey." Source Reduction of Hazardous Waste Seminar Proceedings. Douglas College, Rutgers University. 

In applying the PEEP index concept to sets of industrial effluents thus far, wastewater samples have been filtered prior to bio-analysis (see Section 5.1). Hence, only their soluble toxicity potential is taken into consideration. This is certainly a drawback at this time as toxic and genotoxic potential linked to suspended matter of some industrial plant effluents, for example, have been shown to be important (White et ah, 1996 Pardos and Blaise, 1999). Particulate toxicity in effluent samples should certainly be addressed in future PEEP applications, as soon as reliable small-scale toxicity tests are developed and available to estimate it. Indeed, the issue of soluble and particulate toxicity is especially relevant in relation to technology-based reduction of hazardous liquid emissions. 

The environmental impact of waste disposal and of chemical use in Europe has led to three legislative actions that, in today s global economy, greatly affect flame-retardant use and research. These actions go by the acronyms of RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances), WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), and REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemical substances). These actions are discussed in detail in Chapter 22, but need to be mentioned here as they are clear examples of how changing regulations affect flame-retardant use, selection, and new fire-safety developments. The first one, RoHS, refers to how new items are manufactured, and specifically bans chemicals and elements of environmental and toxicological concern in Europe. One fall-out item of RoHS is the move from a lead-based solder on circuit... 

Environmental Defense Fund (1986) Approaches to source reduction of hazardous waste Practical guidance from existing policies and programs. California Institute of Public Affairs, Claremont, CA... 

OTA (1986) Serious reduction of hazardous waste for pollution prevention and industrial efficiency. Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, Washington, DC... 

Subpart D - Regulations Governing Compliance Extensions for Early Reductions of Hazardous Air Pollutants — Demonstration of Early Reduction Yes 40 CFR 63.74 EPA 1992a... 

Stabilization is the process used for reduction of hazard potential of the waste by converting the contaminants into their least soluble, least immobile, or least toxic form. Other characteristics of the waste may not change in this treatment. 

Hazardous Air Pollutants for Source Categories-Regulations Governing Extension for Early Reductions of Hazardous Air Pollutants-list of high-risk pollutants... 

The analysis of plastics for hazardous metals e.g. Cd, Pb, Cr(total) and Hg is now essential on all products including plastics used in electric and electronic equipment sold within the European states. Directives for these products have been issued under Packaging Directive , End of Life Vehicle (ELV), Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), and have been introduced to control the risk to health and waste disposal in the environment. The listed metals have been used extensively in the past as pigments, stabilisers and catalysts, especially PVC, and these toxic elements can be released over time into the environment. Therefore, polymer producers are advised that future products be lower than EU values or free of these metals. 

Costs in Safety. The hazards present are a direct function of the fire insurance rates that can be obtained. A decrease of the hazards may effect important savings in the insurance items of the overhead costs. In this connection, the cost of a complete automatic sprinkler system may be entirely defrayed by the resulting decrease in fire insurance rates. Such protective schemes and equipment are not so easily paid for, but they frequently can be justified on economic grounds alone. Hazards also involve loss of production and men .s. services as well as impairment of product quality. Reduction of hazards thus becomes an economic problem. 

Is prevention and source reduction of hazardous materials supported by appropriate procurement and inventory practices ... 

---