Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Environmental Research Center, University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq
Abstract
Chemicals are used daily at the university, by its students or staff so it’s necessary to develop a chemical management system to protect their workers and students from accidents caused by exposure to chemicals of various forms, the present study explains the methodology for assessing the health effects and risks of exposure to chemicals in the chemical stores of University of Technology (UOT) by using semi- quantitative risk assessment technique depends on a descriptive analytical approach, by collecting the requested information for seven main stores within the university by questionnaire form included inquiries about personal information about employees, level of education and years of experience, it also included inquiries about chemical stores and storage volumes, at first identified the exposed people, detected high demand chemicals, subsequently identified the chemical hazardous factors, exposure rate and risk level of each substance, ultimately the risk was identified for 41 chemicals among them four strong acids, hydrochloric, sulfuric, nitric and chromic with high exposure rate
benzene and xylene that have high risk level, from results of chemical survey can be conclude 71% of the total chemicals classified as high to moderate risk level, so the study recommends the continuity of the periodic assessment of chemical hazards within the stores of university, include laboratories in assessment procedures, providing of personal safety equipment.
Keywords
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