Toxic chemicals asphyxiants

Train staff in hazards and precautions, and practise emergency evacuation drills Remember that flammable chemicals can also be toxic or asphyxiant... 

There are other ways to injure people, such as physical impact due to falling, tripping, slipping on a slick surface, or being hit by an object or by direct physical impact from a rupture. Asphyxiation can occur, espe cially when dealing with toxic chemicals. 

Throughout history, the chemical and pharmaceutical industries have gained mind-boggling unexpected experience in the hazards of working with chemicals. The safety literature provides a sobering and dark commentary with regard to explosions, runaway reactions, fires, toxic emissions, asphyxiations, spills, and so on, and their consequences. Consequences are seen in the injuries and deaths of people and in physical, social, and environmental damage around the world. 

Designated work areas should be established for handling materials with a high degree of acute toxicity (such as chemicals with corrosive effects, e.g., nitric, sulfuric, and hydrochloric acids hydrofluoric acid sodium hydroxide or chemical asphyxiants such as carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide). 

I. Mechanism of toxicity. Cyanide is a chemical asphyxiant binding to cellular cytochrome oxidase, it blocks the aerobic utilization of oxygen. Unbound cyanide is detoxified by metabolism to thiocyanate, a much less toxic compound that is excreted in the urine. 

Cyanide is released during the metabolism of cyanogenic glycosides. The best established and probably most important toxic action of cyanide is incapacitation of the cell s mechanism for using oxygen, resulting in chemical asphyxiation (oxygen deprivation) (Nelson 2006). 

Carbon monoxide is a highly toxic, flammable, colorless, odorless gas. It is a chemical asphyxiant with a recommended threshold limit value of 100 parts per million parts of air (0.01 vol. %). The gas is slightly lighter than air (sp. gr. = 0.966). 

Chemical asphyxiates are toxic agents which enter into reactions to cause histotoxic hypoxia. These chemicals prevent the red blood cells from carrying oxygen. Some more familiar chemical asphyxiates are carbon monoxide, nitrites, hydrogen sulhde, and aniline. 

Properties Colorless gas, odorless, tasteless sol. in liq. ammonia, alcohol si. sol. in water at. wt. 14.0067 m.w. 28.01 dens. 1.2506 g/l (0 C), 0.808 g/cm (liq., -195.8 C) m.p. -210 C b.p. -195.79 C chemically nonreactive noncombustible Toxicology Low toxicity simple asphyxiant in high cones. toxic cone. 90 ppm in humans, 250 ppm in mice narcotic at high cone, and pressure narcotic effects and the bends are hazards of compressed air atmospheres such as found in underwater diving TSCA listed Precaution Combines with oxygen and... 

A great many toxic by-products are generated in a fire. Since many flammable materials are various forms of hydrocarbon compounds, the chemically obvious products are carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. Carbon dioxide is a simple asphyxiant since, as the concentration of O2 necessarily decreases in air, the concentration of CO2 increases. CO, on the other hand, is a chemical asphyxiant since it attaches to hemoglobin in the blood and prevents oxygen transport throughout the body. 

A seismic interaction is an interaction initiated by an earthqnake that leads to influences between items or between an item and the operator that conld impair their capability to perform their assigned safety function. Interactions may be mechanical (hammering, impact, wear and explosion), chemical (release of toxic or asphyxiant substances), radiological (an increase in dose) or by means of an earthquake induced fire or flood. 

Carbon monoxide is a chemical asphyxiant and acts toxically by combining with the hemoglobin of the red blood cells to form the stable compound carbon monoxide-hemoglobin. It thus prevents the hemoglobin from taking up... 

Simple asphyxiants are usually relatively non toxic, but present a special hazard if used in a confined space since they can displace oxygen and make the atmosphere unsuitable to sustain life. (Chemical asphyxiants, such as carbon monoxide, function by the chemical preventing oxygen uptake.)... 

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