Environmental Issues

In my capacity as an environmental Health and Safety Professional, I support the well being of both human beings and the environment. This therefore encourages me to come up with the best strategy to deal with an emergency while curbing health risks that might be involved and bring about damage and havoc to ecosystems.

According to Meyer (2004) water reactive substances are hazardous materials that react with water leading to products that are spontaneously flammable and upon ignition, secondary fires may occur making it hard to put out the primary fire. Some materials also react with water leading to corrosive or toxic products that put in danger the general public and emergency responders through exposure.
At the accident scene, a wet placard with a class 8 code means that the substance being transported is pyrophoric hence very violent when it reacts with water or humidity and can therefore result into a state of self ignition without any source of ignition. However, to prevent air contact the substances are handled using an appropriate non-aqueous liquid.

In the event of winds blowing across the accident scene, stopping spraying of the fields of the large irrigation unit that is directly next to the accident scene should be undertaken as a first course of action. The reason of doing this is that incase of a leakage of  the material in question it will prevent problems that can arise, should it react with the spray or saturate the air around the scene with vapor leading to an explosion or even fire. The dry atmosphere due the sunny spell means there is less danger though.

As a second step I will see to it that I have warned the residents around the area to be as careful as possible by simply not moving close to the accident scene since this might expose them to health risks. As simple, a warning it might sound, it is very important. People who are in town should also be made aware to keep a safe distance and not move close to the accident scene and keep off from that direction since the winds blowing towards town could carry toxic vapor that will definitely pose health risks to those located within a half to ten kilometers.

To this point I will call my hazardous material emergency team to come and take care of the situation. The team is expected to take a few minutes since the accident scene is only 15 miles away.
Meanwhile I will commence working on the NFPA hazard diamond as I wait for the team. This will definitely assist in indicating the water reactivity degree of the substance and W line will help caution firefighters from use of water incase of fire fighting. AO at 12 oclock will not be included as this will mean the substance does not react with water which is false as the truck is placarded with dangerous When Wet label of class 8.

The restrains to be exercised include avoiding use of water while at the accident scene. The general public should also be kept away from the scene to avoid exposure to the toxins that might have been formed after the substances reaction with vapor in the atmosphere.

A piece of advice to any person or driver will be to keep a safe distance of about 10 kilometers away from the scene to avoid resultant health risks. I will also ask the next responders who come to the scene to be very careful and also accord exceptional attention to the water-reactive substances while handling the emergency.

The chemical might be a special non-aqueous liquid that is used to handle pyrophoric substances to avoid water conduct.