Chemical Hazards

There are many categories of chemicals, each with unique properties and potential hazards.

Examples include:

• Acids – sulphuric acid, “spirits of salts”, pool acid, etc. are highly corrosive and can cause severe burns. The nitrous fumes caused when nitro-glycerine based explosives like dynamite explode contain enough nitric acid to burn and cause blistering inside the lungs if inhaled, often with fatal results if not treated timely, as the blisters burst and fills the victim’s lungs with liquid and he drowns.  So, the hazard would be the presence of acid and the risk is injuries caused by inhaling the acid.
• Alkalis – caustic soda, soda ash, etc, are also very corrosive and can cause severe burns. Caustic soda is a hazard and the risk is injury if it comes into contact with the human body.
• Air pollution – harmful gases and dust is often released into the atmosphere and breathed in by living creatures or carried over great distances and deposited as acid rain, affecting life.
• Water pollution – toxic chemicals are released into river systems with disastrous effect on life and the environment.