There has been increased public interest in the potential effects of nuclear powerplant accidents since the Soviet reactor accident at Chernobyl. People have begun to look for more information about the amount of radioactivity that might be released into the environment as a result of such an accident. When this issue is discussed by people…

Topics and issues related to toxic wastes in academic laboratories are addressed, pointing out that colleges/universities are making efforts to dispose of hazardous wastes safely to comply with tougher federal regulations. University sites on the Environmental Protection Agency Superfund National Priorities List, costs, and use of lab packs are…

The Federal Superfund Program investigates and cleans up hazardous waste sites throughout the United States. Part of this program is devoted to informing the public and involving people in the process of cleaning up hazardous waste sites from beginning to end. The Haz-Ed program was developed to assist the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA)…

Discusses storage of hazardous chemicals and provides a list of eight basic safety rules to use in developing a safe storage system. Suggestions include not storing materials alphabetically, storing nonreactive chemicals together, and not storing oxidizers and fuels together. (JN)

This is the fourth in a series of articles concerned with safety in school science. This article presents some facts about eight types of carcinogenic chemicals and suggests precautions in their use in British schools. A safety bibliography is also included. (HM)

Informs biology teachers about lead contamination by providing an overview of the subject. Emphasis is placed on the sources of lead exposure, followed by ways in which a discussion of lead could be incorporated into the biology curriculum. (ZWH)

Chemical demonstrations can and do enhance an otherwise potentially dull subjects--the properties of hazardous materials. This book contains the recipes for presenting several chemical demonstrations. Demonstrations are designed to be relatively easy to perform and present minimal hazards if done properly. The book contains an introduction, safety…

This guide is designed to help individuals make responsible decisions about safe use and disposal of household products. It consists of eight sections dealing with: (1) hazardous chemicals in the home, how hazaradous products become hazardous waste, and whether a hazardous waste problem exists in Puget Sound; (2) which household wastes are…

The document maintains that the world is filled with health hazards and the best a person can do is to assess the danger of individual products, learn the risks, weigh the risks against the benefits, and decide whether or not to personally take these risks or to subject family members to them. This perspective begins in the home. This book…

Suggests that a literature survey can alert students to real-life ethical problems surrounding many organic compounds. Topic areas students could explore include: hazards in the workplace, toxic chemicals, and nerve gas structures. Background information and an extensive bibliography are given. (DH)

Discussed are accidents that occur in the laboratories of highly trained chemists. Four examples are provided to illustrate potential hazards that are often overlooked in chemistry laboratories, molten inorganic salt baths, the reaction of acetone and hydrogen peroxide, halogenated acetylene compounds, and the reaction of hydrogen peroxide and…

Provides real life assignments that can be used to help students apply chemistry laboratory techniques to solve environmental hazardous waste problems. Numerous diagrams are provided to aid in describing the experiments performed. (ZWH)

Green chemistry is the utilization of a set of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture and application of chemical products. Some of the philosophical questions and practical decisions that have guided the greening of the organic chemistry laboratory at Hendrix College in…

One easy way to reduce the number of accidents in the lab is to go "green." Green chemistry, or sustainable chemistry, emerged about a decade ago, but the concept has been practiced for centuries by indigenous people of many continents. The basic principles of green chemistry are that you should use only what you need and recycle what you can.…

The Household Hazardous Waste Disposal Project was established as an interagency effort to reduce the level of toxicants entering the environment by developing a control plan for the safe disposal of small quantities of household chemicals. This summary report provides an overview of the aspects of this problem that were examined, and the steps…