Toxic agents disposal

Finally it should be mentioned that multipoint ambient air monitors and multicomponent analysis systems are appearing on the analytical instrumentation market. Such systems mostly are based on Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy or are on-line systems with mass spectrometers. Although such systems enable up to 20 components to be analysed simultaneously, their usefulness for plant surveillance is questionable because of the cost of establishing numerous sampling points around toxic agent disposal facilities. 

An attractive feature of using the solvent as an agent to control propagation in solution polymerization is that solvents when used are usually present in very large excess in relation to any radical species. Of course, economic, solubility, toxicity, waste disposal, and other considerations limit the range of solvents that can be employed in an industrial polymerization process. 

While industrial practice requires a trial burn and a facility may not operate until the data are accepted, industrial facilities obtain approval to process many different waste streams based on a single trial burn. In special situations, particularly with toxic materials such as polychlorinated biphenyls, both a surrogate burn and a trial burn would be required. RCRA regulations offer the option of allowing the use of data from another facility, under certain conditions, in lieu of a trial burn. However, industry has used this mechanism at only a few sites with similar units. It has been used twice by the CMA for the Tooele, Utah, disposal facility. The CMA should pursue this mechanism with the respective regulatory authorities. The committee believes that chemical agent disposal facilities are treated similarly to industrial facilities with respect to the conduct of trial bums. 

Non-stockpile chemical material (e.g., wastes from past CW agent disposal efforts, unserviceable munitions, contaminated containers, and found rounds that have been recently located after having been historically buried) are also undergoing disposal. Furthermore, any soil or groundwater that may be contaminated by potentially toxic agent re.sidues at the sites where non-stockpile material has been found are remediated and subjected to the protocoLs of a formal cleanup program (Opresko ct al 1998, 2001 Bakshi etai, 2000). 

It is important to emphasize here that permissible levels of the toxic agents exhausted to environment should be selected on the realistic and scientifically-ground base. Too strict standards on exhausts and disposals make the CW destruction related works not only much more expensive and time-consuming, but can increase the risk for nearby inhabitants and attendants. Table 3 shows the maximum permissible levels in air for operation zone of the CW destruction facility and data on tentative safety levels for inhabitants accepted in Russia and in US. Moreover, the maximum permissible levels of CW and their decomposition products serve as criteria for elaboration of requirements for sensitivity of their determination in various media. 

The War Department would not approve sufficient funds for proper storage of toxic agents, but neither would it approve funds for disposing of toxics in appreciable quantities. Consequently the CWS "couldn t afford to keep [mustard and lewisite] or dispose of it. Comment of Maj Gen Alden H. Waitt, former Chief Chemical Officer, on margin of draft copy of this chapter, Sep 58. 

In chemical reduction, one or more electrons are transferred from the reducing agent to the chemical being reduced. This process can reduce the toxicity of a solution, making it safer for disposal. 

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