CARBON MONOXIDE EMISSIONS |
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Carbon monoxide, chemical formula CO, is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, flammable and highly toxic gas. It is a major product of the incomplete combustion of carbon and carbon-containing compounds. It is less dense than air under ordinary conditions, however it accumulates on the ground, meaning that if poisoning causes loss of consciousness the amount of carbon monoxide inhaled increases and so fatality is radically increased. It is very slightly soluble in water and burns in air with a characteristic blue flame, producing carbon dioxide; it is a component of producer gas and water gas, which are widely used artificial fuels. It is a reducing agent, removing oxygen from many compounds and is used in the reduction of metals, e.g., iron , from their ores. At high pressures and elevated temperatures it reacts with hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst to form methanol. Carbon monoxide is formed by combustion of carbon in oxygen at high temperatures when there is an excess of carbon. It is also formed with a byproduct oxygen by decomposition of carbon dioxide at very high temperatures (above 2,000 °C). It is present in the exhaust of internal-combustion engines, often the exhaust of automobiles, and is generated in coal stoves, furnaces, and gas appliances that do not get enough air. This may be due to insufficient ventilation or other reasons.
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HEALTH / SAFETY |
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Occupational safety and health is the discipline concerned with protecting the safety, health and welfare of employees, organisations, and others affected by the work they undertake (such as customers, suppliers, and members of the public).
The primary, and arguably most prominent reason for occupational safety and health (OSH) standards are moral - an employee should not have to expect that by coming to work they are risking life or limb, and nor should others affected by their undertaking.
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LIQUIFIED PETROLEUM GAS - LPG - LP GAS |
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Liquified petroleum gas (also called liquefied petroleum gas, liquid petroleum gas, LPG, LP Gas, or autogas) is a mixture of hydrocarbon gases used as a fuel in heating appliances and vehicles, and increasingly replacing chlorofluorocarbons as an aerosol propellant and a refrigerant to reduce damage to the ozone layer. Varieties of LPG bought and sold include mixes that are primarily propane, mixes that are primarily butane, and mixes including both propane and butane, depending on the seasonin winter more propane, in summer more butane. Propylene and butylenes are usually also present in small concentration. A powerful odorant, ethanethiol, is added so that leaks can be detected easily. LPG is manufactured during the refining of crude oil, or extracted from oil or gas streams as they emerge from the ground.
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OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY |
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Occupational safety and health is the discipline concerned with protecting the safety, health and welfare of employees, organisations, and others affected by the work they undertake (such as customers, suppliers, and members of the public).
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OSHA - Occupational Safety and Health Administration |
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The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is an agency of the United States Department of Labor. It was created by Congress under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, signed by President Richard M. Nixon, on December 29, 1970. Its mission is to prevent work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths by issuing and enforcing rules (called standards) for workplace safety and health. This same act also created the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) as a research agency whose purpose is to determine the major types of hazards in the workplace and ways of controlling them. As of March 2006, the agency is headed by Assistant Secretary of Labor Edwin Foulke.
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