Environmental

Hazards
Group 10
What is an environmental Hazard
• An environmental hazard is a substance, a state or
an event which has the potential to threaten the
surrounding natural environment or adversely
affect people's health
• Human-made hazards while not immediately health-
threatening may turn out damaging to man's well-
being eventually, because degradation in the
environment can produce secondary, unwanted
negative effects on the human ecosphere.
Example: The effects of water pollution may not be immediately
visible because of a sewage system that helps drain off toxic
hazards. If those hazards turn out to be persistent (e.g.
persistent organic pollutant), they will literally be fed back to their
producers via the food chain
Types of Hazards
• Chemical
• Physical
• Biological
Chemical Hazards
• A chemical hazard is a type of hazard caused by
exposure to certain chemicals in the
environment.
• Exposure to some chemicals can cause acute or
long-term detrimental health effects.
• The industrial effluents released into the
environment (rivers, landfills, etc) act as
chemical effluents
Types
• Flammable : Material that will burn or ignite, causing fire
or combustion. eg: methanol
• Corrosive : Chemical that causes visible destruction of, or
irreversible alterations in, living tissue by chemical action
at the site of contact. eg acetic acid, sodium
hydroxide
• Reactive : Material that reacts violently or explodes under
either ambient conditions or when in contact with air,
water, or other chemicals. eg: TNT, Sodium Metal.
• Toxic:Material that may cause harm to an individual if it
enters the body.
• Irritant : Material that can cause harm to an individual or
wildlife by causing irritation to the eyes/skin etc or a
substance which can cause an allergic response
Toxins
Material that may cause harm to an individual if it
enters the body.

• Carcinogen: a substance or agent that may cause

cancer

• Mutagen: An agent that can induce or increase the

frequency of mutation in an organism

• Poison: any substance that can impair function,

cause structural damage, or otherwise injure the
body
• Neurotoxins: toxins that are poisonous or
destructive to nerve tissue

• Immune drugs that can modify

Agents:
the immune response, in this case by
suppressing the immune system

• Sensitizer: a substance that causes

hypersensitivity or reactivity to an antigen, such as
pollen, especially by a second or repeated
exposure.

• Teratogen: An agent that causes malformation of

an embryo or fetus.
 Routes of Exposure
• Ingestion
• Inhalation from fumes
• Poisoning
• Explosion
Effects
Adverse health effects are dependent on the factors
of the exposure. Factors that play a part in whether or
not adverse health effects may result from an
exposure are:
• the type of chemical
• the amount or dose (the amount or level of a
chemical a person was exposed to)
• the duration (how long did exposure occur)
• the frequency (how many times the person was
exposed)
Depending on the chemical, these longer-
term health effects might include:
• organ damage
• weakening of the immune system
• reproductive problems and birth defects
• effects on the mental cognitive or physical
development of children
• cancer
Physical Hazards
A physical hazard is an agent, factor or
circumstance that can cause harm with or without
contact.
Physical hazards are substances or activities
that threaten your physical safety. They are the
most common and are present in most
environments at one time or another. These
include unsafe conditions that can cause injury,
illness and death.
Types
• Ergonomic Hazards
• Radiation
• Heat And Cold Stress
• Vibration Hazards
• Noise Hazards
Radiation
• Radioactive materials are hazardous.
Nuclear radiation can ionise chemicals
within a body, which changes the way the
cells behave. It can also deposit large
amounts of energy into the body, which
can damage or destroy cells completely.
• Sources: Used Fuel Rods from Nuclear
Power Plants, Nuclear Bombs, etc
Low-level contamination
• The hazards to people and the environment from radioactive
contamination depend on:
• the nature of the radioactive contaminant
• the level of contamination
• the extent of the spread of contamination.
• Low levels of radioactive contamination pose little risk, but can still be
detected by radiation instrumentation.
• In the case of low-level contamination by isotopes with a short half-life, the
best course of action may be to simply allow the material to naturally
decay. Longer-lived isotopes should be cleaned up and properly disposed
of, because even a very low level of radiation can be life-threatening when
in long exposure to it.
High-level contamination
• High levels of contamination may pose major risks to people and the
environment.
• People can be exposed to potentially lethal radiation levels, both
externally and internally, from the spread of contamination following
an accident (or a deliberate initiation) involving large quantities of
radioactive material.
• The hazard from contamination is the emission of ionising radiation.
The principal radiations which will be encountered are alpha, beta
and gamma, but these have quite different characteristics
Effects
Eyes High doses can cause cataracts.
Radioactive iodine can build up and cause cancer,
Thyroid
particularly during growth.

Lungs Breathing in radioisotopes can damage DNA.

Radioactive isotopes can sit in the stomach and irradiate for
Stomach
a long time.
Reproductive organs High doses can cause sterility or mutations.
Skin Radiation can burn skin or cause cancer.
Radiation can cause leukaemia and other diseases of the
Bone marrow
blood.
RISK MANAGEMENT
• Given that radioactive materials are hazardous, certain
precautions can be taken to reduce the risk of using
radioactive sources. These include:
• keep radioactive sources like technetium-99 shielded
(preferably in a lead-lined box) when not in use
• wear protective clothing to prevent the body becoming
contaminated should radioactive isotopes leak out
• avoid contact with bare skin and do not attempt to taste the
sources
• wear face masks to avoid breathing in materials
• limit exposure time - so less time is spent around radioactive
materials
• handle radioactive materials with tongs in order to keep a
safer distance from sources
• monitor exposure using detector badges, etc
Temperature
• Cold Stress
• Overexposure to freezing conditions or
extreme cold can result in a risk
• Freezing injuries – frostbite and frostnip
• Hypothermia
• Heat stress
• Dehydration
• Heat stroke
• Chronic heat exhaustion
Biological Hazards
Biological hazards, also known as biohazards,
refer to biological substances that pose a
threat to the health of living organisms,
primarily that of humans. This can include
medical waste or samples of a
microorganism, virus or toxin (from a
biological source) that can affect human
health
Pathogens
• In biology, a or a germ in the oldest and
broadest sense is anything that can produce
disease; Typically the term is used to describe
an infectious microorganism such as a virus,
bacterium, protozoa, prion, or fungus.

• There are several substrates including

pathways where the pathogens can invade a
host. The principal pathways have different
episodic time frames, but soil has the longest
or most persistent potential for harboring a
pathogen. Diseases caused by organisms in
humans are known as pathogenic diseases.
Epidemics
• An epidemic is the rapid spread of infectious disease to
a large number of people in a given population within a
short period of time, usually two weeks or less.
• Common source outbreak:
• In a common source outbreak, the affected individuals had an exposure
to a common agent/biohazard. If the exposure is singular and all of the
affected individuals develop the disease over a single exposure and
incubation course, it can be termed a point source outbreak.
• Propagated outbreak:
• In a propagated outbreak, the disease spreads person-to-person.
Affected individuals may become independent reservoirs leading to
further exposures.

• Many epidemics will have characteristics of both

common source and propagated outbreaks (sometimes
referred as mixed outbreak).
PANDEMICS
A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious
disease that has spread across a large region;
for instance multiple continents, or even
worldwide.Throughout history, there have
been a number of pandemics, such as
smallpox and tuberculosis. One of the most
devastating pandemics was the Black Death,
which killed over 75 million people in 1350.
The most recent pandemics include the HIV
pandemic as well as the 1918 and 2009 H1N1
pandemics.
 Routes of Exposure
• Through physical contact between an infected
animal/person and non-infected person
• When a person is injected or punctured by an
infected object, such as a needle
• Other infectious agents are transmitted indirectly
by attaching themselves to food, water, cooking
or eating utensils
• When an insect carries them from an infected to
a non-infected person
• Through the air, where they can be inhaled
BIOHAZARD LEVELS and
• Biohazard Level 1: Bacteria and viruses
(eg:chicken pox), as well as some cell cultures
and non-infectious bacteria. At this level
precautions against the biohazardous materials
in question are minimal, most likely involving
gloves and some sort of facial protection.
• Biohazard Level 2: Bacteria and viruses that
cause only mild disease to humans, or are
difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting,
such as hepatitis , mumps, measles, dengue
fever, HIV. Routine diagnostic work with clinical
specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level
2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and
procedures.
• Biohazard Level 3: Bacteria and viruses that can cause
severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which
vaccines or other treatments exist, such as anthrax,
West Nile virus, tuberculosis, typhus, yellow fever, and
malaria.
• Biohazard Level 4: Viruses that cause severe to fatal
disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other
treatments are not available, such as Ebola virus, Lassa
fever virus.
• When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a
positive pressure personnel suit, with a segregated air supply,
is mandatory.
• The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain
multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room,
autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions
designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard.
• Currently there are no bacteria classified at this level.
PRECAUTIONS
• Proper disposal of biohazardous waste
• Proper labelling of biohazardous materials before
disposal
• Use of biohazard suits, decontamination centres in
labs and hospitals
• Frequent checks for pathogens