Surveillance of hazardous substances releases due to system interruptions, 2002

The Hazardous Substances Emergency Events Surveillance (HSEES) system collected information on 9014 acute hazardous substance releases in 15 participating states in 2002. There were 3749 fixed-facility manufacturing events, of which 2100 involved "interruptions" to normal processing and 1649 "comparisons" that did not involve interruption. Equipment failure (69%) or intentional acts (20%) were the main root factor. Many events occurred in October and November in three states (Texas, Louisiana, and New Jersey), in three manufacturing industries (industrial and miscellaneous chemicals; petroleum refining; and plastics, synthetics, and resins). In interruption events, the substance categories most often released were mixtures, other inorganic substances, and volatile organic compounds and those most often causing injury were acids, chlorine, bases, and ammonia. Comparison events resulted in more acutely injured persons (408 versus 59) and more evacuees (11,318 versus 335) than interruption events and therefore may receive more public health attention. Because of the large number of interruption events, targeted prevention activities, including management of change procedures, lessons-learned implementation, process hazards analysis, and appropriate protection for workers could be economically advantageous and improve environmental quality. Efforts should focus on the identified areas of greater occurrence. The relationship of weather and equipment failure with interruption events needs further investigation.     

Acute public health consequences associated with hazardous substances released during transit, 1993-2000

Massive quantities of hazardous substances are transported each day throughout the United States. While most arrive safely at their destination, uncontrolled releases of substances in transit do occur and have the potential of causing acute public health consequences for those individuals at or near the release. Data from 16 state health departments participating in the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry's (ATSDR) Hazardous Substances Emergency Events Surveillance (HSEES) system were analyzed to determine the public health consequences that occurred from actual releases in transit. Of the 9392 transportation events analyzed, 9.1% resulted in 2008 victims, including 115 deaths. The population groups injured most often were employees and the general public. The most common injury sustained was respiratory irritation. Evacuations were ordered in 5.5% of events effecting at least 63,686 people. Human error and equipment failure were the most common factors leading to events. These findings underscore the importance of job safety training, community planning, and effective emergency response to prevent adverse public health consequences from occurring or lessen their effect on the public.     

Hazardous substances releases associated with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in industrial settings, Louisiana and Texas

The scientific literature concerning the public health response to the unprecedented hurricanes striking the Gulf Coast in August and September 2005 has focused mainly on assessing health-related needs and surveillance of injuries, infectious diseases, and other illnesses. However, the hurricanes also resulted in unintended hazardous substances releases in the affected states. Data from two states (Louisiana and Texas) participating in the Hazardous Substances Emergency Events Surveillance (HSEES) system were analyzed to describe the characteristics of hazardous substances releases in industrial settings associated with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. HSEES is an active multi-state Web-based surveillance system maintained by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). In 2005, 166 hurricane-related hazardous substances events in industrial settings in Louisiana and Texas were reported. Most (72.3%) releases were due to emergency shut downs in preparation for the hurricanes and start-ups after the hurricanes. Emphasis is given to the contributing causal factors, hazardous substances released, and event scenarios. Recommendations are made to prevent or minimize acute releases of hazardous substances during future hurricanes, including installing backup power generation, securing equipment and piping to withstand high winds, establishing procedures to shutdown process operations safely, following established and up-to-date start-up procedures and checklists, and carefully performing pre-start-up safety reviews.     

GB4943-2001危险电压的基本概念

电压是设备电路的基本电性能参数,危险电压是从设备安全性能评价的角度,赋予电压特定的危险属性.不同的安全标准对危险电压概念的界定存在着一定差异,本文根据国家标准GB4943-2001<信息技术设备的安全>探讨危险电压的基本概念.     

The effects of seasonal variation on hazardous chemical releases

SCOPE: Accidental and intentional chemical releases are an increasing threat to our society. These events occur year around under different seasonal circumstances. A number of papers using the Hazardous Substances Emergency Events database (HSEES) have found some evidence that season may be an important variable affecting the number of hazardous chemical releases (HCRs). To the authors' knowledge, no analyses specifically focused on seasonal variation of HCRs. Significant effects of season are useful to further HCR prevention efforts and improve preparation and training of first responders, community evacuation, and hospital preparedness. RESULTS: Seasonal variation is a factor in transportation HCRs, but not fixed facility HCRs. There is an overall seasonal effect for the cause of the event. There is also seasonal variation of HCRs with respect to geographical area, with more incidents in the South. The substances released also demonstrate seasonal variation with summer having more incidents involving acids, ammonia, chlorine, pesticides, paints and dyes. The number of victims treated at hospitals resulting from HCRs did not display seasonal variation. CONCLUSIONS: This new additional information involving seasonal changes of HCRs adds to the literature on HCRs and may indirectly have implications for the prevention of incidents, training of personnel responding to HCRs, community planning, and local hazard vulnerability analyses and finally hospital preparedness.     

Fate of ammonia in the atmosphere--a review for applicability to hazardous releases

The physical and chemical mechanisms responsible for the removal of ammonia from the atmosphere have been reviewed. Capture by atmospheric moisture (clouds, rain, fog), surface water (rivers, lakes, seas), and deposition on vegetation and soil constitute the main pathways for ammonia removal from the troposphere. Ammonia catalyzes the atmospheric oxidation of sulfur dioxide to sulfur trioxide and reacts rapidly with acidic components of the atmosphere (sulfuric, nitric, and hydrochloric acids). The ammonium salts formed are the main components of smog aerosols and thus affect the opacity of the atmosphere and the earth radiation budget. Slow oxidation of ammonia in the atmosphere plays only a minor role in its removal. The data obtained for ammonia reactions under normal atmospheric conditions are generally applicable to model chemical reactions occurring during massive release of ammonia in the atmosphere, provided the impact of high ammonia concentration on the mass transfer processes that control some of these reactions, are taken into account.     

The situation of hazardous chemical accidents in China between 2000 and 2006

From the aspects of the total quantity of accidents, regional inequality, enterprises scale and environmental pollution accidents, this study makes an analysis of hazardous chemical accidents in China for the period spanning from 2000 to 2006. The following results are obtained: firstly, there were lots of accidents and fatalities in hazardous chemical business, i.e., the number of casualty accidents fluctuated between 200 and 600/year, the number of fatality fluctuated between 220 and 1100/year. Secondly, the accident rate in developed southeast coastal areas, e.g., Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, was far higher than that in the northwest regions, e.g., Xizang, Xinjiang, and Qinghai. Thirdly, nearly 80% of dangerous chemical accidents had occurred in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Finally, various sudden environmental pollution accidents resulted from hazardous chemicals were frequent in recent years, causing a huge damage to human and property. Then, based on the readjustment of economic structure in the last decades, the development status of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) in SMEs and other factors, the paper explores the main causes, which offers valuable insight into measures that should be taken to reduce hazardous chemical accidents.     

有害物质检测方法国际标准发展动向

2008年12月11日,IEC发布并实施了国际电工领域第一个关于有害物质测试的国际标准I EC62321:2008 Edition 1.0《电子电气产品中六种限用物质(铅,镉,汞,六价铬,多溴联苯和多溴二苯醚)的浓度测定程序》。该标准从     

The assessment of community vulnerability to acute hazardous materials incidents

The manufacture, storage and transportation of voluminous quantities of hazardous chemicals in the United States and Canada pose serious problems for lEmergency planners, however, should not merely concern themselves with the physical hazard, “risk”, that confronts them. In developing disaster mitThese more specific analyses should isolate particularly vulnerable neighborhoods and should be applied to areas where emergency-related resources canA regional vulnerability scale should consist of two components. First, a hazard assessment component where such factors as the density of chemical pro     

Assessment of removal of components containing hazardous substances from small WEEE in Austria

Minimum treatment requirements for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) established by Directive 2002/96/EC provide for the removal of specific components containing hazardous substances. To date, no comparative analysis of removal rates has been undertaken. The present paper examines the state of de-pollution of sWEEE in Austrian treatment plants. The mass of selected components removed and the corresponding mass of hazardous substances is compared to estimated values for sWEEE input material. The results obtained reveal that components are only partly removed, featuring a high variation between components and plants assessed. The overall rate of removal ranged from 72% of the estimated value for batteries to 21% of the estimated value for liquid crystal panels. This implies the forwarding of substantial quantities of hazardous substances to mechanical treatment processes, particularly relevant in terms of dispersion of pollutants. Furthermore, easily releasable pollutants, such as Hg from LCD-backlights, Cd from batteries or highly contaminated dust in general, pose substantial health risks for plant workers. Low removal rates of printed circuit boards, batteries and toner cartridges also lead to a reduction in quantities of valuable recyclable materials (precious metals, plastics).     

Editorial:Polymer Fibres 2000 The Manchester Conference Centre, Manchester, UK, 5-7 July 2000

Natural polymers fibres such as hair and wool have been exploited since antiquity. The development of synthetic polymers in the last century was driven partly by the need for man-made fibres. Because of this, polymer fibres have been the focus of intensive research for a many years and, by some people, the field is now perceived as being mature. This, however, is far from the case and in recent years there have been unparalleled developments in the preparation of new polymer-based fibres, new techniques of fibre characterisation and novel applications of polymer fibres. Moreover, polymer fibres are finding increasing use in high-performance composites where their high levels of stiffness and strength combined with low density give rise to materials with outstanding mechanical properties.     

FS-2001多路射线监测仪的研制

FS-2001型多路射线监测仪是一种智能化多探头的电离辐射剂量监测仪器，该仪器有四路相对独立的测量系统，用于辐照场工作场所的射线监测并具有声光报警功能，同时能够输出控制信号，控制安全连锁装置，保证生产过程，操作人员的安全。     

200O～2001年磁性功能材料新进展

综述了2000～2001年间国内外磁性功能材料在研究和应用方面的若干新进展,内容包括高的最大磁能积稀土永磁材料、毫米波用微波磁性材料、磁隧穿结材料、磁光材料及其应用和磁性材料的磁共振研究.     

Tables of Contents,Volume 32, Numbers 1-6, 2000

Strength of Materials -     

Ignition and self-ignition of reacting substances in conditions of perfect thermal contact

The methods of Shvets [1] and of integral relations [2,3] have been used to solve the problems of ignition and self-ignition of nonvolatile reacting substances, for boundary conditions of the fourth kind.     

Changing trends in publishing behaviour among university faculty, 1980-2000

This article analyses changes in publication patterns over a twenty-year period at Norwegian universities. Based on three surveys among academic staff; in 1982, 1992 and 2001, covering all kinds of publications, the following general conclusions are drawn: (a) co-authorship has become more common, (b) the extent of publishing directed towards an international audience has increased, (c) the scientific article in an international journal has enhanced its position as the dominating type of publication, and (d) the number of publications per academic staff member has increased. The largest changes have taken place within the social sciences, which to an increasing extent approaches the publication pattern in the natural sciences. On the other hand, the large productivity differences between individual researchers have remained remarkably stable over the two decades in all fields of learning. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Autonomous, broad-spectrum detection of hazardous aerosols in seconds

Actual or surrogate chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive materials and illicit drug precursors can be rapidly detected and identified when in aerosol form by a Single-Particle Aerosol Mass Spectrometry (SPAMS) system. This entails not only the sampling of such particles but also the physical analysis and subsequent data analysis leading to a highly reliable alarm state. SPAMS hardware is briefly reviewed. SPAMS software algorithms are discussed in greater detail. A laboratory experiment involving actual threat and surrogate releases mixed with ambient background aerosols demonstrates broad-spectrum detection within seconds. Data from a field test at the San Francisco International Airport demonstrate extended field operation with an ultralow false alarm rate. Together these data sets demonstrate a significant and important advance in rapid aerosol threat detection.