A hazard is an agent that can cause harm or damage to humans, property, or the environment and Chemical hazards are caused by chemical substances causing significant damage to the environment. they are defined in the Globally Harmonized System and in the European Union chemical regulations. The label is particularly applicable towards substances with aquatic toxicity.
Risk is the probability that exposure to a hazard will lead to a negative consequence. So, what are the routes of chemical exposure in our bodies? There are basically four ways: ingestion, inhalation, absorption, and injection.
- Ingestion: Process of intake of food, drink, or another substance into the body by swallowing or absorbing it
- Inhalation: Breathing in the chemicals through the mouth or nose and absorbed through the lung.
- Absorption: Process through which a chemical can pass through the skin into the body.
- Injection: A sharp object punctures the skin and injects a chemical directly into the bloodstream.
The principal health effects most typically associated with organic solvent exposure include nervous system damage, kidney and liver damage, and cancer. These agents can also cause death from acute exposure leading to depression of the brain's respiratory center.
There is a large number of workers exposed across a wide range of industries. The health effects caused by solvent exposure are serious and there are many feasible and available control methods and technologies for reducing the extent of worker exposure.
As it is wisely said that prevention is better than cure, some of the ways are:
Provide the appropriate ventilation to remove concentrations of the chemical solvent in the air.
Provide employees with proper PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) for each type of chemical solvent utilized in the workplace.
Provide employees with respiratory protection when necessary to eliminate exposure risk.
Create and utilize detailed processing, handling, and storage procedure for all chemical solvents used within the workplace.
Store all chemicals properly to reduce exposure and utilize both normal and emergency use policies for those chemical solvents within the workplace.
Utilize sound workplace practices and techniques to limit employee exposure. This should include both process and maintenance-related activities, especially, since maintenance-related exposures constitute a higher portion of employee exposures than typical processing.
Sometimes, even taking precautions, we make mistakes and damage is done. In that situation, we should
not panic, evacuate calmly and quickly perpendicular to wind direction through the designated escape route
Keep a wet handkerchief or piece of cloth/ sari on your face during the evacuation
Keep the sick, elderly, weak, handicapped, and other people who are unable to evacuate inside the house and close all the doors and windows tightly.
Do not consume the uncovered food/ water etc open to the air, drink only from the bottle
Change into fresh clothing after reaching a safe place/ shelter, and wash hands properly
Inform Fire & Emergency Services, Police, and medical services from safe location by calling 101, 100, and 108 respectively.
Listen to PA (Public Addressal) System of the plant/ factory, local radio/ TV channels for advice from district administration/fire/health/police and other concerned authorities
Provide correct and accurate information to the government official.
Inform others on the occurrence of the event at public gathering places (like school, shopping center, theatre, etc.).
Don’t pay attention to the rumors and don’t spread rumors.
