Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 15 (2002) 403–404www.elsevier.com/locate/jlp

Book Review

Hazardous Chemicals Handbook, 2nd Edition (2002)P.A. Carson and C.J. Mumford; Butterworth-Heinem-ann, Oxford, UK and Woburn, MA, pp. 608, Price$85.99

This second edition is an expanded and updated ver-sion of the first edition that was published in 1994. Theaim of the book is to provide an initial point of readyreference for the identification of hazards and pre-cautions for dangerous chemicals. As the authors pointout, it is targeted not only at those in the chemical andprocess industries, but also anyone likely to work withchemicals within industry, and the service area, e.g., hos-pitals, universities, research laboratories, engineering,agriculture, etc. This second edition highlights theadvances in knowledge relating to chronic toxicologicaland potential environmental effects of specific chemi-cals, and in legislation and government guidelines(primarily in the UK). The book has 17 main chaptersas well as a chapter on conversion tables and measure-ment data and a chapter containing a bibliography ofmany useful sources of information relating to hazardoussubstances. There is also an appendix listing selected UKlegislation relevant to environmental protection andoccupational health in relation to chemicals and a goodsubject index.

Chapter 1 is an introduction to the subjects coveredin the book, including some data on accidental fires aswell as some tables listing information possibly requiredfor a hazardous chemical, typical data on hazards to theenvironment, and data from the COMAH regulationslisting quantities of a hazardous substance that require a“consent” to store these above a “controlled quantity.”Chapter 2 contains definitions of various terms relatedto hazardous chemicals. Chapter 3 is a new chapter thatprovides an introduction to basic chemical principles forpersons that are not chemists or chemical engineers. Abrief discussion of the relevance of physicochemicalprinciples to hazard identification is presented in Chapter4. This includes discussions of such properties as vaporpressure, gas-liquid solubility, phase changes, densitiesof gases/vapors, immiscible liquid-liquid systems, etc.Chapter 5 is a thorough discussion of toxic chemicalscovering topics such as hazard recognition, types oftoxic chemicals, hazard assessment (discussions and dataon LD50, LC50, TLV, and OEL), risk assessment of car-cinogens, risk control, control of substances hazardousto health, and precautions for specific chemicals. Many

useful tables are included in his chapter. In Chapter 6the authors succinctly review hazards of flammablechemicals, including discussions of ignition and propa-gation of a flame front, control measures, fireextinguishment, and fire precautions.

A brief discussion of reactive chemicals is presentedin Chapter 7, covering water-sensitive chemicals, toxichazards from mixtures, reactive hazards from mixtures,oxidizing agents, explosive chemicals, general principlesfor storage, and hazards arising in chemicals processing.This chapter also contains some useful tables listing anumber of chemicals that can result in reactive hazards,potentially explosive compounds, and design practicerecommendations, to name several. The special problemsassociated with a number of cryogens (liquid oxygen,liquid nitrogen and argon, liquid carbon dioxide, andliquefied natural gas) are briefly discussed in Chapter 8.Chapter 9, similarly, discusses the hazards of 16 com-pressed gases and recommended practices for their safestorage and handling. In Chapter 10, the authors do agood job of succinctly discussing techniques for moni-toring air quality and employee exposure. The chaptercovers such topics as: selected general analytical tech-niques for monitoring environmental pollution, gasesand vapors, particulates, monitoring water quality, moni-toring land pollution, flammable gases, toxic particu-lates, official methods (BSI and US EPA methods), sam-pling strategies, selected strategies for determiningemployees’ exposure to airborne chemicals, and pol-lution monitoring strategies in incident investigations.Many useful tables are also included in this chapter.Chapter 11 is a very brief review of the hazards posedby radioactive chemicals, covering the hazards (toxicityof various isotopes), types of radiation, and control mea-sures. Principles of safe design are briefly reviewed inChapter 12, discussing such topics as design procedures,layout, storage, equipment design, piping arrangements,fire protection, and installation and operation. Chapter13 covers various aspects of operating procedures thatare relevant to safe operation, including commissioning;operation procedures during normal start-up, and normaland emergency shut-down; maintenance; pressure sys-tems; emergency procedures; spillage; first aid; personalprotection; medical screening; monitoring standards;and training.

Chapter 14 discusses safety aspects of marketing ofchemicals, such as classification, packaging, labeling,and information that the supplier must provide to the

404 Book Review / Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 15 (2002) 403–404

customer (e.g.. MSDS). A useful table lists UK legis-lation affecting the classification, packaging, labeling,and carriage of dangerous substances. Safety consider-ations for the transport of chemicals are reviewed inChapter 15. The topics discussed are: road transport; railtransport; air transport; sea transport modes of transportfor liquids, gases and solids; loading and unloading; andcontainer filling/discharging. Chapter 16 is a new chapteron chemicals and the environment: sources and impacts,which covers atmospheric emissions, liquid effluents,and solid wastes. A number of tables list such items astype of waste and forms of pollutant; common sourcesof pollutants; some physical forms of waste; origin,quantities, and destination of major solids wastes;examples of hazardous gases generation from waste pre-treatment processes, to name a few. The final chapter,also a new one, is on chemicals and the environment:monitoring and protection. It covers the following topics:legislative control (primarily UK pollution controllegislation), waste management, environmental impact

assessment, control of atmospheric emissions, liquideffluent treatment operations, control of solid waste, andmonitoring and auditing.

This book is one of the most useful sources of infor-mation on hazardous chemicals and their handling andcontrol that I have recently seen. It contains a wealth ofuseful data on many topics in the form of tables andfigures. The authors have done a great service, in myopinion, to practitioners of process safety and loss pre-vention by revising and publishing this book. Consider-ing the size and scope of the book, the price is a bargainthese days. I recommend it highly to anyone involvedin this field of technology.

S.S. Grossel,Process Safety & Design, Inc., 41 Sussex Road,

07012-2017 Clifton, New Jersey, USAE-mail address: ssgrossel@aol.com

PII: S0950-4230(02)00025-6