Category: Assessment And Management Of Health And Environmental Risks

Protective clothing is an important aspect of safety, and the guidelines presented here should be followed when working at industrial facilities. Communication Devices Two‐way radios and cell phones are effective ways to maintain contact with a main safety office. For hazardous sites, a sampling team should make contact upon arrival and departure from each sampling… Continue reading Personal Protective Clothing

Recognizing the physical and atmospheric hazards associated with working in various industries and manufacturing plants is important. Simply acknowledging the hazards, however, does not guarantee safe working conditions. An employer is obligated by OSHA to provide safety equipment and establish a training program for employees. The important thing to remember is that the responsibility for… Continue reading Safety Equipment

The distance to the toxic endpoint was calculated for both the worst and alternate case release scenarios. The toxic endpoint for chlorine is 0.0087 mg/l (3 ppm). This value is based on the Emergency Response Planning Guidelines Level 2 (ERPG‐2) value. ERPG‐2 is defined as the maximum airborne concentration below which it is believed that nearly all… Continue reading Determination of Toxic Endpoint Distance

Atmospheric hazards are comprised of three primary types: oxygen deficient atmospheres, explosive/flammable atmospheres, and toxic atmospheres. These types of hazards require air monitoring and ventilation before entering a manhole or other confined space. Air monitoring equipment is discussed later in this chapter. It should be noted that atmospheric hazards caused or contributed to by an… Continue reading Atmospheric Hazards

Industrial hygiene or occupational hygiene is the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, control, and confirmation of protection from hazards at work that may result in injury, illness, or affect the well‐being of workers. These hazards or stressors are typically divided into the categories biological, chemical, physical, ergonomic, and psychosocial. The risk of a health effect from a given stressor is… Continue reading Industrial Hygiene

An industrial safety system is a countermeasure crucial in any hazardous plants such as oil and gas plants and nuclear plants. They are used to protect human, industrial plants, and the environment in case of the process going beyond the allowed control margins. As the name suggests, these systems are not intended for controlling the process itself… Continue reading Industrial Process Safety System Guidelines

Occupational Safety and Health Administration The OSHA Act was enacted to ensure so far as possible every working man and woman in the nation safe and healthful working conditions and to preserve our human resources (OSHA 2018). Under the Act, the OSHA was created within the U.S. Department of Labor to “Right‐To‐Know” Laws Probably one of… Continue reading Health and Occupational Safety

The Internet has become the ultimate data source for science and technology. However, caution must be used when applying Internet data to scientific efforts or regulatory compliance. Often, information is published on the Internet without any description of the study or research that was used to develop the data. When such documentation is lacking, consider sending… Continue reading Implications and Limitations of Using the Internet

The key to communicating with the public lies not in simply explaining the technical hazards but also in understanding and responding to the sources of people’s outrage. Public communication does not end with the distribution of right‐to‐know information. To the contrary – as more and more community members acquire information – the tendency is to… Continue reading Lessons Learned

To demonstrate the principles of risk communication, we present the simple case of a small oil‐and‐water separation plant that briefly released black smoke after a heavy rain caused oil to seep into a natural gas burner. Although the smoke was under control in less than 10 minutes, in the aftermath of this seemingly small incident, the… Continue reading Case Study: Environmental and Health Risk Communication Neglected Until After an Accident