What are the four types of physical hazards? Physical hazards include noise, temperature extremes, radiation, and vibration.

Physical hazards include ergonomic hazards, radiation, heat and cold stress, vibration hazards, and noise hazards. Engineering controls are often used to mitigate physical hazards.

Some commonly used workplace chemical hazards include:

• Acids.
• Caustic substances.
• Cleaning products such as toilet cleaners, disinfectants, mildew remover and chlorine bleach.
• Glues.
• Heavy metals, including mercury, lead, cadmium, and aluminum.
• Paint.
• Pesticides.
• Petroleum products.

Physical hazard are based on the intrinsic properties of the chemical. There are five main classes of physical hazard namely Explosive, Flammable, Oxidising, Gases under Pressure and Corrosive to metals.

A hazard is a potential source of harm. They may also be classified as health or safety hazards, by the populations that may be affected, and the severity of the associated risk. In most cases, a hazard may affect a range of targets and have little or no effect on others.

Definition and Hazards Pyrophoric materials are substances that ignite instantly upon exposure to oxygen. They can also be water-reactive, where heat and hydrogen (a flammable gas) are produced.

Health Hazards are based on the ability of the product to cause a health effect – such as eye irritation, respiratory sensitization (may cause allergy or asthma symptoms or breathing difficulties if inhaled), or carcinogenicity (may cause cancer).

Simple asphyxiant means a substance or mixture that displaces oxygen in the ambient atmosphere, and thus causes oxygen deprivation in those who are exposed, leading to unconsciousness and death.

Examples are iron sulfide and many reactive metals including plutonium and uranium, when powdered or thinly sliced. Pyrophoric materials are often water-reactive as well and will ignite when they contact water or humid air.

Potential Hazards An asphyxiant is a gas or vapor that can cause unconsciousness or death by suffocation (asphyxiation). Asphyxiants with no other health effects may be referred to as simple asphyxiants. Examples of simple asphyxiants include nitrogen, argon, helium, methane, propane, and carbon dioxide.

Asphyxiants are gases that deprive body tissues of oxygen. They are generally divided into two categories, simple and chemical. 1 Simple asphyxiants merely displace oxygen from ambi- ent air whereas chemical asphyxiants react in the human body to interrupt either the delivery or utilization of oxygen.

An asphyxiant gas, also known as a simple asphyxiant, is a nontoxic or minimally toxic gas which reduces or displaces the normal oxygen concentration in breathing air. Breathing of oxygen-depleted air can lead to death by asphyxiation (suffocation).

What are the hazards of simple asphyxiants? Simple asphyxiants are gases which can become so concentrated that they displace oxygen (or, push out the oxygen) in the air. Low oxygen levels (19.5 percent or less) can cause symptoms such as rapid breathing, rapid heart rate, clumsiness, emotional upset, and fatigue.

Carbon monoxide is harmful when breathed because it displaces oxygen in the blood and deprives the heart, brain and other vital organs of oxygen. Large amounts of CO can overcome you in minutes without warning — causing you to lose consciousness and suffocate.

Hydrogen peroxide vapor is heavier than air and may cause asphyxiation in enclosed, poorly ventilated, or low-lying areas.

Findings in patients exposed to asphyxiants may include the following:

• CNS depression, lethargy, and obtundation.
• Irritability, severe temporal headache, and generalized muscle weakness.
• Coma (nearly always from CO poisoning)

Carbon Monoxide Exposure: Autopsy Findings Toxic exposures and deaths are both easily missed due to the vague, general symptoms and nonspecific signs and symptoms – especially with low-level and chronic exposures. As the prototypical suffocating asphyxiant gas, CO exemplifies the entire essence of forensic pathology.

Hazardous products are divided into two hazard groups: physical hazards and health hazards. The two hazard groups are further divided into hazard classes. Each hazard class contains at least one category.

Combustible dusts – Category 1. Simple Asphyxiants – Category 1. Serious eye damage/eye irritation – Eye Irritation – Category 2B. Reproductive toxicity – Effects on or via lactation.

There are a few hazard classes with five or more categories (e.g., organic peroxides). The category tells you about how hazardous the product is (that is, the severity of hazard). Category 1 is always the greatest level of hazard (that is, it is the most hazardous within that class).

There are four major routes by which a chemical may enter the body:

• Inhalation (breathing)
• Skin (or eye) contact.
• Swallowing (ingestion or eating)
• Injection.