Hazardous Materials

Hazardous Materials Production to Destruction

Occupational Safety and Health Administration • The toxicity of a substance is its ability to cause harmful effects. • All chemicals can cause harm. • When only a very large amount of the chemical can cause damage, the chemical is considered to be relatively non-toxic. When a small amount can be harmful, the chemical is considered toxic.

Physical v. Chemical Hazard • Physical is a danger of fire, explosion, etc. that a material can cause. This is much easier to control and measure. • Chemical Hazard is the danger the material itself poses to humans/environment due to its existence.

Toxic v. Hazardous • The toxicity of a substance is the potential of that substance to cause harm, and is only one factor in determining whether a hazard exists. The hazard of a chemical is the practical likelihood that the chemical will cause harm. A chemical is determined to be a hazard depending on the following factors: • toxicity: how much of the substance is required to cause harm, • route of exposure: how the substance enters your body • dose : how much enters your body

Toxic v. Hazardous • duration: the length of time you are exposed, • reaction and interaction: other substances you are exposed to, and • sensitivity: how your body reacts to the substance compared to others

Modes of Transmission • Skin Contact • Inhalation • Ingestion • Eye Contact

Health Affects • Acute – Meaning they act immediately like producing a cough, watery eyes, nausea, etc. • Chronic Affects – Meaning the effect they have is long term and sometimes cumulative. X-ray exposure, noxious cleaning chemicals, etc.

What form do hazardous materials take? • Solid • Liquid • Gas • Vapor • Dust • Fume • Fiber • Mist

How are we protected • Workers must have access to MSDS sheets of materials they work with • Trucks are placarded • Warning Labels on Containers • Rivalry between EPA and OSHA keeps everyone on their toes

How does using HM impact everyone? • Insurance rates • Injuries/Death • Cleanup • Environmental Damage • Evacuation • Product Loss • Traffic Delays

Costs on Highways Only • 2,484 Accidents/yr • Accidents = $1.2 B/yr • Includes: • losses of product • emergency vehicles • Insurance • Deaths • and cleanup

What to do with HMW • Incinerate • Landfill • Chemically Treat • Resource Recovery • Deep Injection Wells • Export

Problems with disposal • Costly, in most cases the cost of fines for release are much less expensive than cost of proper disposal • Lack of Space • Environmental Racism

What is the US doing? • Cercla – Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation And Liability Act of 1980 • Resource Conservation and Recovery Act • Superfund Program taxes oil refineries and hazardous materials producers and uses these to finance cleanup of these sites once they are unusable. • National Priorities List rates these. • Not surprisingly this is not enough to pay for pollution/cleanup

What is the US doing? • Transporters of waste and materials are charged a fee • This money is used to fund grants for states to train Hazardous Emergency Response Teams and develop planning for such emergencies

Countries that address HM and Waste • These are mostly taxes/fees for dumping hazardous wastes • France • Spain • Belgium among others

What is the world community doing? • Basel Convention (ESM - environmentally sound management) • US has not ratified

HMW • Hazardous waste taxes are a statistically and economically significant deterrent to interstate waste transport, that taxes are being imposed by large-capacity and large-import states, and that therefore these taxes have had a decentralizing effect on the" national pattern of hazardous waste transport and disposal.

Sources • http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/ • http://www.osha.gov • http://www.epa.gov • http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=226069 • http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/publications/epp/93/93c.html • http://hazmat.dot.gov/files/registration/0304/regbrch2004.pdf • http://www.europa.eu.int

Hazardous Materials