EPA 1s deueloping an RCRA Hazardous Waste Minimlzation NatIonal Plan that will serue as the basfsfor an ouerall natlonal policy on hazardous waste management. The Plan wlll place Its hlghest prlority on source reduction, followed by recycllng. In thls article, the Chief of the EPA’s Waste Minimlzatlon Branch describes the Agency’s Draft National Plan and requests comments from readers on the is...

Background: Road crash injury is largely preventable and predictable; it is a human-made problem amenable to rational analysis and countermeasures. All the studies on Road Traffic accidents either use number of accidents or victims according to availability of accident data. Studies combining these two types of data to identify hazardous locations are a rarity. In this study data on both, the n...

OBJECTIVES Hazardous drinking could negatively affect health and lead to alcohol use disorders, but it is unclear how hazardous drinking affects treatment outcomes of depression and anxiety and stress-related mental health problems. The aim of this study was to examine whether hazardous drinking, measured by Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C), influences the outcome...

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Office of Hazardous Materials Safety estimates that an average of over 800,000 shipments of hazardous materials (HAZMAT) are made each day in the United States [27]. The DOT also reports that approximately 1.5 billion tons of hazardous materials are shipped each year [26]. The majority of the hazardous material shipped is classified as flammable liqui...

This paper expands an earlier analysis of the effect of firm characteristics and safety practices on truck accident rates. The sample size has been increased from 13,000 to 75,500. Negative binomial regressions are used in preference to the Poisson technique used previously. The current analysis confirms previous results, but provides important new insights into the safety implications of being...

Chlorine gas represents a hazardous material threat from industrial accidents and as a terrorist weapon. This review will summarize recent events involving chlorine disasters and its use by terrorists, discuss pre-hospital considerations and suggest strategies for the initial management for acute chlorine exposure events.

There are many instances in which it is possible to plan ahead for an emergency evacuation (e.g., an explosion at a chemical processing facility). For those cases, if an accident (or an attack) were to happen, then the best evacuation plan for the prevailing network and weather conditions would be deployed. In other cases (e.g., the derailment of a train transporting hazardous materials), there...

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the statistical problems that exist and procedures that are available when attempts are made to assess the possible harm which has been or might be caused by substances in the environment. These issues bear directly on important decisions of public policy such as those related to the establishment and enforcement of regulations.

This Public Health Statement is the summary chapter from the Toxicological Profile for Mercury. It is one in a series of Public Health Statements about hazardous substances and their health effects. A shorter version, the ToxFAQsTM, is also available. This information is important because this substance may harm you. The effects of exposure to any hazardous substance depend on the dose, the dur...

We have developed a super compact optical fluorescence spectrometer. Our innovative design combines advantages of guided wave planar optics and free-space microoptics. This innovation allows for miniaturization that is not achievable with pure planar or pure free-space optics. A prototype device has volume of its optical part below 1cm. The spectrometer covers 450nm-650nm spectral range, and pr...