Hazardous Substances Books

This was the best overall text on the subject of hazardous materials. The book thoroughly covers some very complex topics in a very easily understood format. The author uses clear examples to illustrate points. The chapter review exercises and questions provide an excellent summary of the main points. As a teacher, I plan to use the book in many of my courses. I would encourage the author to consider publishing other manuals for use with the main text such as a student or instructor guide.

This is a good environmental compliance handbook. If you need indepth answers, you need to go to an attorney. Steven Young is the best source for environmental legal history in Illinois. The publisher of this book is difficult to contact; however, this book is well worth the investment to any business with compliance issues.

The OSHA HazComm standard has been around for many years now (relatively speaking) and has become one of those things that isn�t glamorous any more (ergonomics is). Your peers do not speak in HazComm terms anymore; everyone has moved on. You think you have a handle on HazComm, you purchased a HazComm video training tape, management of the training has been relegated to Human Resources, and you have a summer intern photocopying MSDS�s and putting them in binders. Well, read Mr. McManus�s book and see how wrong you can be.

Mr. McManus�s (and his co-author Gilda Green�s) book is the most comprehensive treatment of the HazComm requirements I have ever read. If you have read the entire US Federal OSHA HazComm standard, you know how daunting it is; Mr. McManus provides a very readable explanation of that standard as if �reading between the lines� for you. In this book is extensive coverage of all aspects of the HazComm regulation and HazComm training; additionally, there are sections on learning and effective methods of training (as this book is about training).

One particularly valuable section of this book is the great deal of helpful guidance on the problems with missing information on material safety data sheets (MSDS�s), how to deal with the declaration of trade secrets, and what can be about it. I am sure that if you have worked with MSDS�s, you have run into the situation of missing information, declarations of trade secrets, or confusing information on many of these documents.

If you are small business and cannot afford those fancy video tapes or you don�t have the resources of a consultant or a full time professional, this is an ideal book. It is written clearly in fundamental language (there are some areas of the MSDS that just don�t lend themselves to simple terms, such as the toxicity information), and the McManus/Green team do their best to bring the more complex topics to terms that are easier to understand; this is particularly valuable if you have to turn around and explain it to a bunch of employees who have to work with the chemicals.

As for those difficult questions that have been around for a long time and never get answered, seasoned safety and health professionals will find the answers to those questions in this book. Mr. McManus has addressed all those questions directly. At the end of each chapter is a �Question and Answer� section, and this is the part of the book I found to be the most valuable. Things I have wondered about for years, Mr. McManus has address in this section.

This is almost a complete package for a small business owner, and is primarily written from that perspective. However, from the perspective of a seasoned safety engineer and industrial hygienist, it has proven to be a most valuable resource for me. This thin, tall book is a gem. Read what you have been missing about the HazComm.

For those wishing to understand how the choice to secede came about in a state where elitist planters did not dominate the political process (as in South Carolina) this is an excellent book. Thornton clearly shows that secession was a product of populist Jacksonian democracy in Alabama, providing an alternative to the view that only slaveholders supported disunion. Alabama's politics were marked from the beginning by class conflict between the yeomanry and planter class, and politicians learned early to exploit these tensions for political gain. Parties fought to outdo each other in labeling the other side as "elitist" aristocrats who would subvert the rights of freemen for their own selfish interests. This line of argument set the stage for the development of state's rights theory in Alabama, as promoters of internal improvements, banks, and social reform were often portrayed as elitist cabals. However, state's rights arguments were often little more than sophisticated versions of the election demagoguery that characterized debate over all the state's political issues.

Lack of policy-making expertise and the necessity of courting public approval often led the state's legislators to enact laws that hurt Alabama's long-term development. Forged in the Jacksonian era however, the electorate did not accept the Jeffersonian ideal of deferring to their betters in matters of policy, and regularly removed legislators who did not hew to the voters' instructions. Prior to the 1850s, most Alabama voters were not directly involved with the market economy, and were thus less likely to be affected by national economic and political policies, as well as less aware of the character of Northern opinion regarding slavery. Secessionist fire-eaters therefore enjoyed little support during the nullification and secession of 1850 crises, but their arguments gained respect during the 1850s as phenomenal economic growth drew more people into the market and its attendent insecurities, as well as making them more aware of the power of the federal government and the strength of the abolitionists.

Prosperous times and the marginalization of the Whig Party decreased the number of significant issues of disagreement among Alabama's politicians, leaving them in search of an issue to demagogue for political gain. The fight over Kanasas allowed them to portray northerners as elitists who would deny southern men of their rights and reduce them to the status of slaves. Such an argument gained creedence even among non-slaveholders because of the state's long populistic rhetorical tradition, which had convinced the yeomanry that elitist villains seeking to reduce their rights were always afoot, and could be defeated only by political supermen fighting for the rights and values of the electorate.

The southern rights argument clearly resonated among the yeomanry, particularly among those most affected by new economic uncertainties. In both the Presidential election of 1860 and the subsequent election of delegates to the state's secession convention, voters overwhelmingly chose candidates who supported secession or who would do so as long as Alabama would be joined in secession by other states. While Thornton's argument could be more thoroughly reinforced by exploring social factors that led the yeomanry to support secession, his argument for a hyper-democratic political tradition abetted by demagoguery and voter ignorance as a cause of Alabama's decision to quit the Union is quite persuasive.

This book is great for anyone that works in a studio. It makes you really think about your health and there are plenty of things in here that I wouldn't have normally thought about.

This book is the companion to Sittig's Handbook of Toxic and Hazardous Chemicals and Carcinogens, 4th edition. Hazardous chemicals listed in Sittig are the basis of this book. "This book is intended for chemists, toxicologists, laboratory technicians, manufacturers, safety professionals and government personnel involved in environmental and industrial safety and health matters."

The resource is divided into eight sections. Section 1 is the largest section and takes up half the book. You will find an alphabetical list of hazardous chemicals and their manufacturers names. It also lists the country of the manufacturer if not made in the U.S.

Section 2 (International Directory of Manufacturers of Hazardous Chemicals) is an alphabetical list by country of chemical names and their manufacturer. Each entry includes address, phone, fax, email, and website. It may also include parent company, subsidiaries/affiliates and stock listing.

Sections 3 (International Chemical Industry Organizations), Section 4 (Professional Environmental Health and Industrial Hygiene Organizations) and Section 5 (International Environmental Protection Agencies) are all organized alphabetically by country and list organization or agency name, address, phone, fax, email, and website. Some entries include a brief description of the organization. Only federal agencies are listed for the United Statesin Section 5.

Section 6 (State Environmental, Health and Occupational Safety Agencies) is organized by state or U.S. territory and includes agency name, address, phone, fax, email, and website.

Section 7 lists Hotlines, Databases, and Useful Web Sites. The hotlines appear to be U.S.and Canadian only. Hotline or database name, responsible organization, hotline number, email, website and organization descriptions are listed. Useful websites include those from .com, .edu, .org, and .gov websites. Many of the listed hotlines from federal agencies. Many database listings include contact phone numbers, which is a great feature.

Section 8 (Poison Control Centers) is organized by state and lists organization name, address, emergency phone number or hotline, and the area served. The book also includes an index.

This is an excellent resource. It is very easy to use and includes quality sources. It will serve as a nice jumping point for further research. This reviewer gives International Resources Guide to Hazardous Chemicals: Manufacturers, Agencies, Organizations, and Sources of Information an enthusiastic recommendation to all libraries concerned with environmental and chemical safety issues.

Book is rife with experiments gone awry such as the "Pill" Also DES,Asbestos, DNA and Experimenting with the consumer. Cases are cited. There is an index and references pages.

Page 16

"The problem of secrecy and nondisclosure is one that infects all areas of scientific advance where safety questions are involved....Yet as the products of science approach commerce, in cases in which a need to stave off government intervention or to secure official approval presses upon investigators or exploiters, there may be reasons of self-interest to suppress information."

Page 47

"The pernicious possibilities in a balancing test for the use of deception are apparent in the APA comittee's list of factors that it says "may make the use of deception more acceptable."

The Pocket Reference for Hazardous Materials Response is a great "true" pocket reference (4" x 6") for dealing with HazMat incidents. It is written by Dr. Chris Weber (Dr. Hazmat). Chris is a PhD biochemist as well as a 20+ year veteran firefighter in Michigan and Deputy Director of the Washtenaw County Hazardous Materials Response Team. It is designed to be used on the scene with well organized sections on Incident Management, container and markings identification, identification by physical and chemical properties (including tables on the really bad stuff), Incident Operations, decon, mitigation techniques and demobilization. Very thorough.

Terry Therneau's text was the first to cover extensions of the Cox proportional hazards model. In this text O'Quigley develops the methods rigorously. Interesting and novel topics include the introduction of estimating equations and changepoint models. This text is mathematically rigorous and involves the theory of stochastic processes, stochastic integrals and Brownian Motion. It also includes some real applications that are well illustrated.

There are things that we should know and don't and our ignorance has very little consequence in our life one way or the other. On the other hand, some things we ought to know because they have real potential for altering the way we live. In Nick Valcik's book Regulating the Use of Biological Hazardous Materials in Universities: Complying With the New Federal Guidelines we find out that perhaps not all is well in many of the nation's finest research university laboratories and he clearly makes the point that this could have dire consequences.

At a time when the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services have stopped work at a dozen or more university biological and radiological labs, Dr. Nicolas Valcik delivers for us the story of one such distinguished (name absent) research university and its problems in complying with new health and safety standards issued by the federal government.

The book is a good story of how dedicated and exceptionally talented scientists get immersed in their work and the safety and security standards do not get the attention required. The author is sympathetic to the scientists who deliver for us research findings we need to remain prominent in the health, medical, and security fields. They are scientists first and the regulations, no doubt needed, get compromised, apparently a lot more than we imagine.

In the book's report of trying to comply with new federal biological and radiological protection guidelines at one distinguished research university we begin to see what could be a much larger problem throughout the nation. We are even treated in this book to pictures of regulation and security violations that were overlooked by the scientific staff.

If you want to take one book that is well researched and documented which will give you an inside glimpse of what may be a serious problem at our research universities and in their communities, read Dr. Valcik's treatise that unfolds like a story and gives you enjoyably what you need to know about this critical area in scientific research.