Question

You conduct an inspection of the facility and determine that:

a). 5 gallon pails of product are returned by customers when they have been held by customers for over six months. The facility adds H₂ O₂ to bring the product up to “spec” and resold.

b). The office uses Easy Off oven cleaner purchased at Safeway in one pint containers to clean the cafeteria oven that is used to cook employee lunches. The empty 1 pint containers are thrown in the regular trash. For purposes of this problem assume that the easy off oven cleaner has a pH of 1.5.

Please discuss the implication of the above facts with regard to environmental laws.

Answer 1

The exposure to Hydrogen Peroxide is harmful to humans. The limit for exposure on weighted average is 1 ppm in 8 hours time during a 40 hours week. An exposure of a concentration of 75 ppm can put the life of the affected person in danger. The employers are needed to ensure proper employee communication through labels, written warnings and instructions at workplace, issue guidelines,conduct training and making the employee aware of the places where H2O2 is being used to minimise the incidents of accidental exposure and subsequent harm.

The organisation must comply to the OSHA guidelines to ensure the well being of customers and employees at work, while using H2O2 to permissible limits and under strict monitoring and care.

The substance used to clean the oven is highly acidic in nature and is known to be hazardous to the employees or anyone who comes in contact with it. It should be handled and disposed with utmost care. Throwing it in drain may lead to burns to an employee or someone else coming in contact with it. It should be disposed under hazardous waste collection and disposal program. The material used to clean the oven should also be tested for its concentration, as excessive amount of acid left on the surface of the oven may lead to health hazards to the workers operating it and also to the employees who eat the food cooked in it. The pH value for an acid to be in non hazardous category should be in range of 2-12. The acid of the pH value 1.5 is more acidic than this range, hence a more dilute cleaner with lower acidity is recommended for the purpose.