EPA's Chemical Emergency Preparedness and Prevention Office also may be able to help. Ask the LEPC or the plant safety manager for help in interpreting the information. A. Hazardous chemicals are a much broader category and may be toxic, flammable , corrosive , explosive, or environmentally harmful. Substances which are toxic can cause severe illness, poisoning, or death when ingested, inhaled, or absorbed by living organisms. Toxic chemicals are one type of hazardous chemical.
Exposure relates both to the amount and frequency of coming into contact with a specific chemical.
Federal agencies have established certain exposure limits for workers that prevent them from becoming ill. Repeated exposure to low levels of a mix of chemicals may be linked to health problems, while a single incident at a higher level may be below a toxic threshold. There are some technologies, called continuing or closed-loop processes, that convert hazardous or dangerous compounds into more stable or less toxic substances in a single continuous system. That is, some chemicals are immediately converted or recombined in the manufacturing process to reduce risks that would otherwise be posed by transportation and storage. A. Ask EPA's Office of Research and Development, your LEPC, environmental or consumer activists, or any of several other organizations in the directory at the end of this Guide.