Business Products & Services

Guidelines in Preventing Oil Spills

So as to prevent and handle the disastrous spill oil and hazardous materials in our waterways and to manage them in the event that this misfortunes will not be avoided, the Clean Water Act has made various provisions with regards to these occurrences. There are two emergency response laws that are responsible for this particular provisions that takes care of our waterways which is called CERCLA and EPCRA. The Spill prevention and control countermeasure plan which is commonly known as SPCC is one of the specific measures in the provision. To ensure maximum safety a facility that has potentially harmful chemicals and oils that could cause disastrous effects when released into our waterways must adhere to the provisions governing these laws. Despite numerous ways on addressing this particular hazardous waste management the need to purchase a chemical storage and safety product from a reputable supplier like denios-us would be the best possible way to comply with these provisions.

The oil pollution Act of 1990 provides an added requirements and measures in prevention and control of hazardous spills by further developing the SPCC law. At the previous provisions of these laws the SPCC is only required for factories and Facilities that have large quantities of these hazardous materials. Factories that have these types of materials are required to have SPCC proper storage of these materials can only be done by purchasing high quality give me car storages provided by reliable manufacturers like denios-us. The full text of the filed regulations can be found under 40 CFR 112 of the oil pollution and prevention law.

A lot of damage not only to the people but most importantly to the environment when these hazardous waste are mismanaged and disposed of improperly. The following are possible effects improper disposal of hazardous oil and waste materials with the environment by means of spillage in the waterways.

-Human and animal poisoning on the affected environment.

-The land surrounding the affected area will be polluted

-The air in the surrounding area will be polluted.

-Flammable materials such as oil gold inevitably lead to fire or Worse an explosion that could kill the surrounding life.

-Groundwater and surface water pollution.

The RCRA also known as resource conservation and recovery act indicates that every type of hazardous materials must remain inside of their durable container provided by the reliable manufacturers like denios-us one piece containers must not be open unless there is a necessity to remove the waste from the containers or add another one in it.

The ability of any spill containment unit designed for oil spill prevention is determined by their adaptability to different work areas. Most of these stand alone pallet work stations are specifically designed to be of stand alone use, however they also have the ability to be combined with others in order for a customer solution to perform.

How to Store Chemicals Properly

Chemicals should be stored properly and it is important to know how to do it especially if you have a lab or a research center. Guidelines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA, regarding the proper storage of chemicals should be given importance. Here are the chemical storage requirements that we should comply with.

It is not enough to just put all the chemicals that you use on shelves. Chemicals of different kinds should be separated and stored according to their kind. There should be different storage places or cabinets for different kinds of chemicals.

When chemicals are mixed there is a reaction so you need to take note of this when you are storing your chemicals. If there is negative interaction between two types of chemicals, they should be kept far away from each other. To give an example, solvent should be kept in fire resistant cabinets but must not be stored together with oxidizing agents. Acids (nitric, hydrochloric, and sulfuric) should be kept away from bases (sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, slaked lime, sodium carbonate, and aqueous ammonia). Mixing these corrosive bases with acids with be generating heat which is very risky. Labels should be put on chemical containers and labels should be put on cylinder shoulders.

There should be at least five chemical storage cabinets as recommended by the OSHA. The first one is for general storage where chemicals are put depending on their category or hazardous rating, the next is the cabinet for acids only, then there is a cabinet for corrosive acids, another for corrosive bases and the last for flammable chemicals. These cabinets should be far from sinks or water sources and should always be locked. It should be a concern that there might be excessive chemical vapors from liquid chemicals kept in cabinets. It is best to put these cabinets away from the sunlight but in cool, dry places. Doors of the cabinets or storage places should be installed with hazardous signs.

Since OSHA has no specific color coding system, research facilities and labs are encouraged to create their own color coding system to help identify chemicals quickly. An example color coding scheme would be as follows: red for flammable chemicals, yellow for reactive or oxidizing agents, blue for chemicals hazardous to health, white for corrosive chemicals, and green and gray for chemicals that are moderately hazardous.

The people that are handling the chemicals should receive training on the safety storage procedures. OSHA recommends that training should be completed every few moths. If there are new chemicals, every staff should know about it and they should be taught on how to properly store it. It is very important to store chemicals properly. If done well, your property and your people are protected. The training and qualification of personnel is very important when it comes to handling chemicals.