Emerency Sevices Managment - Advaced Interactions of Hazardous Materials VIII - Research Paper Example

investigations like that from T2 laboratories, it becomes evident that the incident was preventable if the laboratory had instituted precautionary measures. Before a factory begins preparing or using any hazardous chemical like methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl or methyl mercaptan, thorough literature review about the chemical should be carried out (Bevelacqua, 2006). Information such as whether the substance is poisonous, flammable, corrosive or oxidizer should be obtained. Besides, the threshold limit and the IDHL values are determined.

The IDHL values for chlorine (10 ppm in air) is far below that of methyl mercaptan (150 ppm in air) indicating that chlorine is more poisonous than methyl mercaptan. The factory is supposed to prepare a list of the dangerous chemicals they are handling and the possible dangers likely posed by those chemicals. The list and the risk management plan are submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The risk management plan should contain information about; prevention measures, site activities, action taken in case of an emergency and any plan to improve on safety (Bevelacqua, 2006).

T2 laboratory did not have a risk management plan and had not registered with the Environmental Protection Agency. If T2 had complied with this requirement, the runaway exothermic reaction would have been prevented because T2 would have received proper advice from EPA. Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA) should be done to determine the particular step in the production process associated with a hazard. T2 noted that an exothermic reaction occurred during the first step (metalation), heat release in the second and the third reaction step was overlooked.

In addition, the laboratory did not carry out hazard and operability study (HAZOP) when they scaled up. Conditions for small scale production may differ with those for large-scale production. It was mandatory for a T2 lab to assess the risks involved in a large scale production of