Selasa, 14 Februari 2012

Transporting Hazardous Material


Fortunately for us, almost everything we come into contact with in our everyday lives is fully manufactured and safe to be around. But if you've spent some time in the factories, constructing sites or laboratories where things are made, you may have been in the presence of materials that could burn, infect, or poison you. Most of us at one point in our lives have been in the presence of hazardous materials, even right in our houses (think of the cleaning products you use to shine your floors, or the propane tank you use to fuel your BBQ). Although these products are in fact hazardous, harm is not imminent insofar as the products are labeled and we are aware of the risks, and thus take the necessary precautions when using them.

That fact that we rely on hazardous materials as some of the building blocks of a developed society necessitates their transportation. From natural resource sites, chemical processing plants to factories, highly skilled specialists are responsible for moving these contents across the country. These not only include truckers, but dispatchers, fleet managers, operations specialists, and especially, safety compliance specialists.

In Canada, there is exists a national standard to regulate several defined classes of hazardous materials. It is called the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS). This ensures a system where hazardous materials from anywhere in the country can be controlled and safely transported with a common understanding between sender and receiver. There are eight major classes of hazardous materials spelled out by the WHMIS. As a specialist in safety in transportation operations, one must know each class of hazardous material, and how it is transported.

- Compressed gas: gasoline in liquid state. Special cylinders with protected valves and strong metal caps are used for transportation.

- Flammable and combustible material: materials that can explode or otherwise ignite at relatively low temperatures. Some examples are gasoline, ethanol, propanes, and methanes. Containers must be grounded with clips to bare metal and transported in ventilated trucks.

- Oxidizing material: materials that can easily increase a fire's intensity and cause things to burn quicker, like ozone, nitrogen dioxide and peroxides. Similar transportation regulations as flammable and combustible materials.

- Materials causing immediate and serious toxic effects: poisons which can cause immediate bodily harm, like carbon monoxide or cyanides. This class is the skull and crossed bones symbol. The conditions must be well-ventilated during transportation.

- Materials causing other toxic effects: poisons and toxins not quite as dangerous as the above class, like mercury, asbestos or lead.

- Bio hazardous infectious materials: materials that cause diseases, like organisms such as viruses or bacteria. Transportation often requires temperature-controlled trucks.

- Corrosive materials - materials that can burn or irritate the skin or otherwise cause considerable surface damage, like various forms of acid. Each kind of corrosive material requires a special container, ranging from stainless steel to polymer plastic-coated glass.

- Dangerously reactive material: this is a varied class, but basically describes unstable materials that can be damaged or cause damage in a variety of ways, from being banged about, to experiencing rapid changes of temperature, to contact with water.

Transportation training school emphasizes the importance of hazardous material transportation for the integrity of the products, the safety of the driver, and the well-being of society.