{"id":14295,"date":"2017-04-26T13:46:50","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T17:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ehs\/?page_id=14295"},"modified":"2017-07-07T10:44:15","modified_gmt":"2017-07-07T14:44:15","slug":"chemical-hazards","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ehs\/residential-safety-home\/residential-safety-programs-services\/campus-and-clinical-safety\/general-safety\/hazard-communication\/chemical-hazards\/","title":{"rendered":"Chemical Hazards"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>How can chemicals hurt me?<\/h4>\n<p>Chemicals have two general types of hazards:\u00a0Physical hazards and health hazards.\u00a0 Examples of physical hazards include chemicals which may be flammable or combustible, explosive, shock-sensitive, oxidizers, or react violently with water or with air.\u00a0 Examples of health hazards include toxins, carcinogens, teratogens, irritants, and sensitizers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In general, you cannot be exposed to a health hazard unless the chemical enters the body.\u00a0There are four major routes of entry:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Absorption<\/strong> \u2013 the chemical contacts the skin or eyes and causes immediate damage or is absorbed into the bloodstream<\/li>\n<li><strong>Inhalation<\/strong> \u2013 the chemical is breathed and enters the bloodstream through the lungs<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ingestion<\/strong> \u2013 the chemical is swallowed and enters the bloodstream through the gastro-intestinal track<\/li>\n<li><strong>Injection<\/strong> \u2013 the chemical enters a break in the skin from a new or previous injury<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>How do I prevent chemicals from hurting me?<\/h4>\n<p><strong>In general, employees working with chemicals are protected on three levels:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Administrative controls<\/strong> are polices, procedures, guidelines, rules, or trainings that reduce the duration, frequency, or severity of exposure to the chemical<\/li>\n<li><strong>Engineering controls<\/strong> are equipment or substitute products which reduce or eliminate the duration, frequency, or severity of exposure to the chemical<\/li>\n<li><strong>Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)<\/strong> is the clothing, safety glasses, gloves, and other equipment worn by a worker to protect the worker from the hazards of a chemical. PPE does not reduce or eliminate the hazard.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How can chemicals hurt me? Chemicals have two general types of hazards:\u00a0Physical hazards and health hazards.\u00a0 Examples of physical hazards include chemicals which may be flammable or combustible, explosive, shock-sensitive, oxidizers, or react violently with water or with air.\u00a0 Examples of health hazards include toxins, carcinogens, teratogens, irritants, and sensitizers. In general, you cannot be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11959,"featured_media":0,"parent":141,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11959"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14295"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14981,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14295\/revisions\/14981"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ehs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}