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Chapter 6
Chemical Safety and Security Challenges in Academic Institutions in Developing Countries Ahmed F. A. Youssef* Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt 12612 *E-mail:
[email protected] Risk reduction of hazardous chemicals can be achieved by both the best practices for chemical handling and chemistry processes and preventing the illegal or inappropriate use of chemicals. This means safety and security vulnerability assessment should be applied to the life cycle of chemicals. In developing countries, although the chemical industrial sectors have, to some extent, made good progress towards the development of chemical management systems, academic institutions are still in need of technical and financial support to develop their chemical management systems. Based on the current situation, chemistry laboratories in academic institutions are unsafe environments because most of them lack safety measures. Also, they can be considered a target for terrorist activities; in addition chemical industrial facilities contain not only hazardous chemicals, but also equipment which can be used in chemical diversion. These institutions should include personnel with the responsibility to maintain a safe/secure environment for their administrative structure and provide chemical safety/security courses in their curriculum.
1. Introduction Chemicals are an essential part of improving our life, health, and well-being. However, the handling and storage of chemicals can present safety and security © 2018 American Chemical Society Tratras Contis et al.; Responsible Conduct in Chemistry Research and Practice: Global Perspectives ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2018.
risks. The daily use of large amounts of chemicals all over the world, especially those with hazardous effects on health and the environment, make them a target for terrorist activities. Many of these chemicals are of interest to terrorist organizations because they can be used to produce explosives or toxic sources, and chemical weapons. In many terrorist hideouts inspected by the police, the main substances found, in addition to the conventional types of weapons, are hazardous chemicals such as ammonium nitrate and cyanide salts. In some countries that were attacked, the main target for terrorists was the chemicals in academic institutions and chemical industrial facilities. This means there is a need for security measures to protect the hazardous chemicals from theft and misuse in criminal activities during their life cycle. Although the number of chemicals in academic institutions are not as large as those in the industry they are of a wide variety and can be used for chemical diversion or synthesis of more dangerous substances. Also, some of the available instruments or glass equipment in chemistry laboratories could be used for crystallization, purification, and derivatization to produce highly hazardous chemicals. On the other hand, the chemical industry has made good progress towards the development of safe and secure environments relative to academic institutions. In 1985, the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada launched a new initiative known as “Responsible Care” to improve the health, safety, and environmental performance of chemical companies. This initiative inspired chemical facilities to implement responsible care ethics and principals for sustainability and to take actions that reduced harm and environmental impact throughout the life cycle of their products. Members of this initiative must be transparent about their activities. Now, the principals of this initiative are practiced in more than 60 countries including some developing countries. In this chapter, there will be an overview of the chemical safety and security challenges during the chemical life cycle in academic institutions. Although chemical safety and security are correlated because both have good intentions towards people and the environment, there are important differences between them. Chemical safety refers to the best practices to protect people from hazardous chemicals, while chemical security refers to the best practices to protect chemicals from malicious use.
2. The Life Cycle of Chemicals To maintain a safe and secure environment in academic institutions, careful tracking and monitoring of chemicals and personnel is required for those who have access to these chemicals during their life cycle. The life cycle of chemicals begins with the chemical supplier and end with chemical waste disposal. During this life cycle, chemicals pass through many steps, such as the procurement process, chemical handling, transportation, storage, processing of new material formation and finally waste disposal. This life cycle should be both safe and secure. Figure 1 represents the life cycle of chemicals. 98 Tratras Contis et al.; Responsible Conduct in Chemistry Research and Practice: Global Perspectives ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2018.
Figure 1. Chemical life cycle
3. Chemical Hazards The hazards associated with chemicals can be identified from the labels and the safety data sheet (SDS) provided by the producers and/or suppliers for the chemical substances. In 1992, an international mandate adopted during the United Nations conference on the environment and development, established a globally harmonized system (GHS) for hazard communication (1). This system classified chemicals as physical, health, or environmental hazards (2). The system was developed not only to improve the control of chemical hazards but also to provide an international comprehensive system for hazards communication and to facilitate the international trade of chemicals. The first edition of the GHS was completed in 2001 and it was published in 2005 as the first revised edition. Modification was applied to this version which included codifications for hazard and precautionary statements, etc. In 2017, the seventh revised version of GHS was published (2). Table 1 summarizes the GHS hazard classes of chemicals.
4. Dual Use of Chemicals Many of the chemicals available in chemistry laboratories or in chemical industrial facilities can be used directly for mass destruction or as a toxic agent, while others could be used as precursors to highly hazardous substances or chemical weapons. Laboratory equipment and chemical experts play a critical role in chemical diversion. Terrorist groups and disgruntled employees are looking to procure chemicals and/or equipment to use for malicious actions. They are looking for diverse ways to obtain their required chemicals, such as stealing from laboratories or chemical warehouses, buying from the black market or interfering with the chemical transfer process. Some examples of those chemicals with dual use are ammonium nitrate, which is a chemical fertilizer that can be used as an 99 Tratras Contis et al.; Responsible Conduct in Chemistry Research and Practice: Global Perspectives ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2018.
explosive, nitromethane, which is a degreaser that can be used as explosive, and potassium cyanide, which is used in the electroplating industry and can be used as a toxic agent. The development of a secure system for hazardous chemicals can help in reducing the potential of misuse by controlling the ability of terrorists to acquire chemicals and equipment.
Table 1. GHS hazards classes of chemicals Physical Hazards
Health Hazards
Environmental Hazards
Explosives
Acute toxicity
Hazard to the aquatic environment
Flammable gases (including unstable gases)
Skin corrosion/irritation
Hazard to ozone layer
Aerosols
Serious eye damage /eye irritation
Gases under pressure
Respiratory or skin sensitization
Flammable liquids
Germ cell mutagenicity
Flammable solids
Carcinogenicity
Self-reactive substances and mixtures
Reproductive toxicity
Pyrophoric liquids
Specific target organ toxicity – single exposure
Pyrophoric solids
Specific target organ toxicity – repeated exposure
Self-heating substances and mixtures
Aspiration
Substances and mixtures which in contact with water emits flammable gases Oxidizing gases Oxidizing liquids Oxidizing solids Organic Peroxides Corrosive metals
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5. Chemical Safety and Security in Academic Institutions Safe and secure academic laboratories require a shared commitment to and effort from all people to prevent and respond to an accident. The chemical safety and security culture is well recognized around the world in academic institutions. Although many of these institutions developed their own safety and security systems according to their own needs, a vast number of them are still in need of such development. An institution’s administrative structure should include personnel with a responsibility to maintain a safe and secure laboratory environment. They should be able to provide guidance and training for staff, faculty members and students. Preplanning of all experiments, reporting the theft of materials, and suspicious activities is very important, and it should be the responsibility of all persons in chemical laboratories.
6. Chemical Safety and Security Challenges There are many challenges facing chemical safety and security in academic institutions, especially those in developing countries. Most of these institutions have no safety and security office/department in their administrative structure and as a result, they have no a specific policy for chemical management. In such cases, many of the activities related to safety and security depend on the interest of the personnel involved rather than general rules. It was recorded that one of these institutions received chemicals from closing companies without any restriction on the quality or quantity of the chemicals received. This lead to the accumulation of many chemical containers in the chemical storage rooms. The most important issue, in this case, is the absence of a database recording the amount and kind of chemicals received, the mixing of incompatible substances, and the ease of access to those chemicals. Figure 2 shows the dangerous situation of the accumulated chemicals in a storage room. The main reasons for such problems are a lack of information, instructions and training of persons working with hazardous chemicals. Such institutions need help for the development of their own chemical safety and security management programs. This program should be integrated into chemistry education programs. Safety and security training should be treated as a critical component for the preparation of students as chemical professionals. Faculty and staff members should also be familiar with the chemical safety and security procedures.
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Figure 2. Chemical storage area in an institution that received chemicals from some companies going for closure, by Dr. Ahmed F. A. Youssef. 6.1. Purchasing and Ordering of Chemicals One of the most important challenges in chemical management in an academic institution is the procedure of purchasing chemicals. In many countries, although institutions have a responsibility to save the chemicals required for all the students’ and research activities, they do not have a restricted policy for the ordering of chemicals. Due to financial constraints, the purchase of chemicals could proceed without any pre-approved or authorization of requests to order chemicals. Sometimes orders can proceed as a personal order by using a personal credit card. On the other hand, when institutions have a large enough budget for their activities, they order a large amount of chemicals. They consider these chemicals as a backup for future activities. Usually, the order includes large chemical containers rather than small ones because they are cheaper and cost-effective. 6.2. Transport and Transfer of Chemicals Hazardous chemicals are not produced in the same location as their use; thus, we must transport these chemicals to the points where they will be used. Two transportation processes should be considered. The first is outside the chemical facility or institutions using ships, rail systems or the highway. The second is on-site, from the storage room to the production area or laboratory. This means transportation must be considered as a vulnerability point in the life cycle of 102 Tratras Contis et al.; Responsible Conduct in Chemistry Research and Practice: Global Perspectives ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2018.
chemicals. Many challenges from a safety and security point of view are related to the transportation process. Ship, rail or highway transport of hazardous chemicals is subjected to specific regulations for safe chemical transfer, such as chemical labeling, hazard warning words/symbols, and the name and address of the manufacturer. Although this labeling is very important for hazard identification and for emergency cases, this makes the shipment a target for hijacking, theft of material or sabotage. This could not be detected until it is in progress. In addition, one person is often responsible for chemical transport without any support from security personnel; thus no one protects these hazardous chemicals during the transportation process, which makes this shipment an easy target. Also, information about the amount and type of chemicals, route and schedule of shipment transport should be considered targets. Access to such information is very helpful for preventing a chemical attack. For on-site chemical transfer, most of the challenges are related to safety issues rather than security, especially if the hazardous materials are transferred without using a secondary containment.
6.3. Chemical Storage The safe and secure storage of chemicals is an essential part of the chemical management system. Many challenges were recorded in some institutions related to chemical storage. The following points highlight some of them. Many storage facilities do not meet the minimum standard criteria for hazardous chemicals storage conditions. In addition, materials are not always segregated according to their hazard groups. Some laboratories store their chemicals alphabetically instead of by compatibility. This increases the risk of creating an unsafe environment for chemical storage. Inadequate or absence of a chemical inventory system: many institutions have inadequate or have no chemical inventory system. Although the paper-based system for stock management is an old system for managing chemical information about the storage of chemicals in institutions, it is still functional. This system does not give enough or accurate information about the number of chemicals, their location in the storage room and their expiration. The absence of such information may lead to critical problems especially for those chemicals considered peroxide forming reagents or those that form crystals with prolonged storage time. Figure 3 shows the critical situation developed due to inadequate information about store chemicals. New electronic chemical inventory systems are important and helpful not only for identifying the amounts and location of chemicals but also chemical tracking. It can track purchase, sources, storage, consumption, expiration date and users of hazardous chemicals. Access to the chemical storage room: in some institutions, stockroom access is not limited to authorized personnel. This may be due to the absence of safety and security policies and consequently the absence of an access control system. In such cases, chemicals are an easy target for the interiors and/or exteriors of chemical storage rooms. 103 Tratras Contis et al.; Responsible Conduct in Chemistry Research and Practice: Global Perspectives ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2018.
Figure 3. Expired chemicals create risk, by Dr. Ahmed F. A. Youssef. Chemical storage in the laboratory: the nature of chemical laboratory work allows for easy access to a limited number and amount of chemicals. Sometimes people store their chemicals inside the chemistry laboratory on the benchtop or in the hoods. This may aid in the theft of hazardous chemicals and create the critical problems. 6.4. Laboratory Activities In most academic institutions in developing countries, a culture of chemical safety is not commonly practiced. The researchers and students proceed with their laboratory activities without following the minimum requirements of using personal protective equipment (PPE). A lot of chemical accidents have been recorded, such as chemical fire, explosions, spills, and injuries of students. Investigations indicated mostly that, , people working with chemical substances have no background information on chemical hazards or hazard identification. Institutions did not provide any courses or orientations before starting laboratory activities. 6.5. Chemical Waste The hazardous waste generated from laboratory activities poses a threat to human health and the environment; thus, the development of an appropriate waste 104 Tratras Contis et al.; Responsible Conduct in Chemistry Research and Practice: Global Perspectives ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2018.
management system is very important to minimize the adverse effect on human safety. The best method for waste management is a hierarchy for decision making. The waste management hierarchy involves waste elimination, minimization, treatment, and disposal according to the proper selection options. Replacement of very hazardous chemicals with less hazardous or non-hazardous ones, when it is possible, is very important for risk reduction. Also, reducing the amount of hazardous substances or the recovery and reuse of this substance will be very helpful. Waste treatment is one of the most important options for the conversion of hazardous waste to non-hazardous. Treatment methods (3) are available not only for large quantities but also for small quantities and for laboratories. These methods include neutralization, precipitation, and hydrolysis. At the institutional level, two important challenges are related to chemical waste disposal. The first, which is the most common, is the unavailability of the waste collection system. The second, for those who have a waste collection system, is the waste transport and disposal. The only way for chemical waste disposal, in the case of waste collection system unavailability, is a sink or drain system. This method is still applied in many developing countries where many serious environmental problems arise, such as contamination of the sewer system, surface water and soil. The main reasons for such problems are a lack of information about chemical hazards, the unavailability of training programs for chemical management and the cost for the development of a waste management system. For the institutions that have chemical waste collection systems, waste transportation could be subjected to the same challenges as those for hazardous chemical transport, such as hijacking and theft. Also, hazardous chemical waste can be considered a target and can be used for the contamination of water resources. Concerns related to hazardous waste must result in the development of a safe and secure system for waste disposal. Institutions can reduce their hazardous chemical waste by replacing them with less hazardous ones, using virtual labs, developing a practical curriculum which involves the formation of products that could be used as raw materials for other experiments, and ordering the minimum amount of chemicals needed for the experiments.
6.6. Recycling of Chemical Waste Recycling is one of the most important actions in waste management strategy. It provides opportunities to reduce the quantities of chemical waste requiring disposal and reduce the cost associated with purchasing new chemicals. Chemical recycling facilities are not common in developing countries. In general, the investment in waste recycling is very limited. The development of regulations on waste disposal could be helpful in encouraging investment in the recycling industry. Investors could help in such industries where recycling is considered a higher priority than waste disposal in legislation. This action is very important for supplying recycling companies with chemical waste to keep their industry running. 105 Tratras Contis et al.; Responsible Conduct in Chemistry Research and Practice: Global Perspectives ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2018.
7. Legislation and Responsibility Each country needs a legislative framework for chemical safety and security. Appropriate legislation should designate the responsibility to ensure that chemical safety and security is engaged in the production, trade, use and disposal of chemicals. The legislation should describe the various obligations of stockholders and designate the competent authorities to assure that safety and security policies are implemented with good governance. Implementation of legislation requires clear definition of what will be covered under chemical management and which classes of chemicals should be included. There are many obstacles a country may face in chemical management. The most common one is the mechanism of management, which is under the authority of different ministries, some of which are not specialized for chemical management. Also, inadequate coordination mechanism among all ministries sometimes creates corruption, duplicitous authority, and vulnerability in the chemical management system. In addition, most of the developing countries do not yet have serious measures to establish national policy or legal frameworks for chemical management.
8. Conclusion The peaceful triangle of chemicals is safety, security, and sustainability. Capacity building in this area is very important for moving towards the safe and secure practice of chemistry. Lessons from countries that have developed and implemented chemical management programs could be very helpful for developing countries. Establishing a legal base with timely initiation of actions, including an administrative structure with a budget for development and implementation of a chemical management system, should be of the highest priority. Effective indicators of progress need to be developed to follow up the success in the implementation of a chemical management system. Institutions should establish a culture of chemical safety by following and enforcing safety and security rules and procedures at all levels. Safety and security courses or orientation should be included in an institution’s curriculum.
References 1. 2. 3.
United Nations Conference on Environment & Development, Rio de Janerio, Brazil, 1992. Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), 7th Revised ed.; United Nations: New York and Geneva, 2017. Armour, M. A. Hazard Laboratory Chemicals Disposal Guide, 3rd ed.; Lewis: New York, 2005.
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