Question

In no more than 150 words, Discuss the dangers associated with hydrogen sulfide in the petrochemical industry

Answer 1

People who work in certain industries can be exposed to higher levels of hydrogen sulfide than the general population. These industries include rayon textiles manufacturing, pulp and paper mills, petroleum and natural gas drilling operations, and waste water treatment plants. Workers on farms with manure storage pits or landfills can be exposed to higher levels of hydrogen sulfide than the general population. As a member of the general public, you might be exposed to higher-than-normal levels of hydrogen sulfide if you live near a waste water treatment plant, a gas and oil drilling operation, a farm with manure storage or livestock confinement facilities, or a landfill. Exposure from these sources is mainly from breathing air that contains hydrogen sulfide.

Hydrogen sulfide enters your body primarily through the air you breathe. It also can enter your body through the skin. Hydrogen sulfide is a gas, so you would not likely be exposed to it by ingestion. When you breathe air containing hydrogen sulfide or when hydrogen sulfide comes into contact with skin, it is absorbed into the blood stream and distributed throughout the body. In the body, hydrogen sulfide is primarily converted to sulfate and is excreted in the urine.

Scientists use many tests to protect the public from harmful effects of toxic chemicals and to find ways to treat people who have been harmed. You should know that one way to learn whether a chemical will harm people is to determine how the body absorbs, uses, and releases the chemical. For some chemicals, animal testing may be necessary. Animal testing may also help identify such health effects as cancer or birth defects. Without laboratory animals, scientists would lose a basic method for getting information needed to make wise decisions that protect public health. Scientists have the responsibility to treat research animals with care and compassion. Scientists must comply with strict animal care guidelines because laws today protect the welfare of research animals.

Additionally, there are vigorous national and international efforts to develop alternatives to animal testing. The efforts focus on both in vitro and in silico approaches and methods. For example, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) created the NTP Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM) in 1998. The role of NICEATM is to serve the needs of high quality, credible science by facilitating development and validation—and regulatory and public acceptance—of innovative, revised test methods that reduce, refine, and replace the use of animals in testing while strengthening protection of human health, animal health and welfare, and the environment. In Europe, similar efforts at developing alternatives to animal based testing are taking place under the aegis of the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM).

Exposure to low concentrations of hydrogen sulfide may cause irritation to the eyes, nose, or throat. It may also cause difficulty in breathing for some asthmatics. Brief exposures to high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide (greater than 500 ppm) can cause a loss of consciousness. In most cases, the person appears to regain consciousness without any other effects. However, in many individuals, there may be permanent or long-term effects such as headaches, poor attention span, poor memory, and poor motor function. No health effects have been found in humans exposed to typical environmental concentrations of hydrogen sulfide (0.00011-0.00033 ppm). Deaths due to breathing in large amounts of hydrogen sulfide have been reported in a variety of different work settings, including sewers, animal processing plants, waste dumps, sludge plants, oil and gas well drilling sites, and tanks and cesspools.