Hazardous Substances Books

A quite interesting book for people who are interested by hazardous materials response. It presents in detail the HAZMAT procedure to manage an incident after a rapid presentation of the "hazmat team" and his equipment. Gives also a large presentation of each class of hazardous substances and the adapted "HAZMAT" procedure to respond at several type of incident. In his appendix, it describes a large pannel of common hazardous substances and presents for each class of substance a sort of checklist to apply the correct procedure without forgetting any important point. It could be a good support for teaching specialised firefighters (or others) giving a good operationnal approach. But it must be completed by a bit of chemical theory.

Hazardous Materials Injuries is a very usefull guide in the treatment of Hazmat injurys. I have found the protocols very usefull and detailed and it has both a numeric and alphabetic index. I would recomend it for all BLS and ALS responce units.

This is definatly a fun book to read. Very informative on pyrotechniques, yet very scary that it's available to the public (smile). I only wish I had the time to make some of the wonderful toys found in this book!

This book helps a reader navigate the maze known as Material Safety Data Sheets. As anyone who has ever faced the daunting task of completing these knows, these are very difficult to understand, even to the most brilliant of minds. With the help of this book, any MSDS novice can understand the essential elements of any of these forms. Although, it is somewhat dry, the content of the book has earned it place on my desk.

This is an excellent reference. Its best feature is that all ( or most ) chemical synonyms. including tradenames, for a specific substance are listed alphabetically. This usually lets you find a substance in one attempt.

Regulating Toxic Substances: A Philosophy of Science and the Law provides a sophisticated and educational analysis of the complexities associated with regulating, assessing and conceptualizing toxic substances. Cranor does an impressive job at dissecting and disentangling the perplexing relationship between scientific risk assessment analysis as it pertains to Tort law, regulatory agencies and their epistemic and philosophical considerations. Theories of distribution and variants of Rawls's concept of Utilitarianism provide an atypical way of conceptualizing ethical justifications for the regulation of carcinogens and other toxic substances. The universal consideration taken by Cranor is the relationship between scientific assessment of toxic substances and public-healthcare policy efficiency. Of particular value, the last four appendices discuss the theoretic and scientific cancer potency estimates in the California Department of Health Sciences (CDHS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Models of risk act as a function of Alpha and Beta values, statutes authorizing the regulation of carcinogens, and derivation of TD50 (tumorigenic dose) potency values. Regulating Toxic Substances: A Philosophy of Science and the Law will be best suited for those who are interested in the toxic Tort litigation and familiar with moderate to advanced statistic models of risk assessment and public-healthcare policy. Clanor puts together a cohesive evaluation of the synergetic relationship between toxic substances, policy and scientific method.

This book is a general review of the hazard associated with the manipulation of reactive chemicals. It was one of my first readings on the subject and was very instructive, very general and not too theoretical. The book gives the classical basic criteria for suspecting a substance to be hazardous, describes the energy release mechanisms, then explains clearly the different theoretical and experimental methods for hazard screening and assessment. Case histories illustrate the possible consequences. Prevention is treated through various checklists and an entire chapter is about emergency response. It also describes the most important organisations devoted to chemical safety, their activities and the hazard classifications they use. Finally, it studies a very japanese concern: earthquaques. This is a fine book, clear and instructive.

This was sooooooooo long! It didnt have the chemical I was looking for. Jerks.

This novel would be of interest if only because it covers a period that the founders of the United States sought to avoid and Cheney and his fellow neoconservatives have strived with near success to return too. Here is an England beset by superstition whose leaders rule by setting one religion against the next. Inferior as a novel to say, "An Instance of the Fingerpost," it's protagonist is a man who like Zhivago wishes only to tend his own garden and by not getting involved succeeds only in betraying his fellow man.

Skillfully written, though hardly a mystery novel as some reviewers have suggested.

I don't need to go into the plot details. Those have been covered more than sufficiently.

The characters are well developed. The language is flowing and formal and authentic. The historical details enrich the story. I love books that have to do with old England, but not this one. It has nothing to do with the hardness of the times, the triumvirate's power hungry mindset or the manifestations of their determination to wipe out every last vestige of sin, no matter how small. I've read other books that deal with that theme.

But somehow this one just didn't work for me. And it's not the ending becuase I've read plenty of books with depressing endings. Perhaps it had to do with the madness of Kate Shay, her determination - along with the others who were displaced - to elevate Brigge to some sort of prophet status, viewing him as St. Germanus. At any rate, it was a depressing ending to a depressing book.

I agree completely with the "heavy-handed" assessment of another reviewer.
This work is NOT a historical novel. It uses another time and place to write a rather overwrought story of religious intolerance that is somehow supposed to reflect on our times. Such a theme is universal. But readers interested in this novel's period of history would be more entertained and better served by reading David Underdown's "Fire from Heaven" about the "godly reformation" battles in 17th century Dorchester, England.

Knowledge of medieval English history is a boon though not a prequisite for enjoying "Havoc, In Its Third Year", a brilliantly crafted, nominally genred as murder mystery and arguably the best novel to date by Ronan Bennett. The kangaroo trial of Irish woman Katherine Shay for the alleged killing of an infant assumed to be her child is the catalyst that ignites the fire within John Brigge, a coroner and above all a good man, to get to the bottom of the case and see that justice is done even at the cost of his own life and that of his family.

As an Asian reader without any knowledge whatsoever of the politics of the times as between Catholics and Protestants etc, the universality of the novel's theme about the right of an individual to exercise compassion and forgiveness (ie, what it means to be human) is one so powerful as to render any disadvantage from the lack of historical knowledge irrelevant.

It seems too much of a coincidence that in my reading of the book I should be keenly reminded of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible". John Brigge bears a strong resemblence to the John Proctor character in "The Crucible" and his situation to Proctor's one-man crusade against the witch hunt of the McCarthyist era in America. Even his secret shame - a past adulterous affair he deeply regrets with Dorcas, the servant girl, his wife Elizabeth's unexpressed knowledge of it - is almost identical to Proctor's tragic situation that would lead ultimately to his undoing. Adultery, conscionable treachery, dishonourable compromise are all common failings, but there is redemption yet if one has the courage to remember what it means to be human.

Bennett's writing is gloriously profound. His prose flows beautifully. There are lapses though, as when his characters disappear into their own thoughts and start to hallucinate. I also felt the story ended on a rather unsteady note.

"Havoc, In Its Third Year" is nevertheless a substantial triumph that stands head and shoulders above some other more famous books published in 2004. A Booker longlist that should have been in the shortlist.

The author's setting for this work in early 17th century England. This is a well done piece of historical fiction by any standard. The author has obviously done his research. Because of the time, religion, sin, faith, morals and leadership all come into play. I was struck by the timelessness of this work. When you take a close look at the problems encountered by the primary characters in the book, we find this same theme repeated time and again throughout history, indeed our own history. Many of the incidents taking place here, in 1630 could be ripped from the pages of "Grapes of Wrath." It does not take a great leap to turn on the evening news and catch glipses of the very problems the author addresses here. That being said, I do feel the author's wonderful use of the language, his character development and insight to human character make the book well worth the read. Very much recommend this one. It should make you think!

...printed? Parts are so utterly simplistic to deserve the title "dumb". I suspect the writer is in the throes of a severe clinical depression. The world has come to an end for the past several thousands of years and look where we are. Many of the serious problems we are having are addressed as we speak. Just remember: after every ice age there was a warming and vice versa.

Remember the spate of books just before 01/01/2000, predicting every computer would be going gaga? Same here. Nice try, Sierra Club; you just gave me another reason to take you much less serious as I once did.

Ah, yes.The filthy lucre....

This is not science fiction. Instead, it is a realistic global warming novel for our times, especially these days with storms increasing, arctic ice melting away and glaciers disappearing. Instead of the typical doomsday plot with catastrophes around every corner, the global warming in this novel is real. It eats away at society while the main characters struggle to do what they can. Jamie Carter, whose parents suffer as a result of a chemical spill in the eighties, goes into politics. She is driven to do what she can about the environment through politics. As she matures she meets a Ukrainian man whose family suffered from Chernobyl when he was a boy, and the story also follows their relationship through the years. Meanwhile, Jamie's nemesis, who is also followed in the story, becomes a news anchor and creates all kinds of political and media roadblocks. Although billed as science fiction, Grand Traverse is more a novel of social commentary containing characters we can care about. As such, it has the best elements of a suspense thriller while at the same time providing one scenario for the questionable near future of our planet.

The earth is heading toward pandemic environmental disaster. However, Paul Carter and his family do not worry about the orb as the crisis to them is local. Ducain Chemical contaminated Easthaven. He sues and wins, but his victory is hollow as his beloved wife Judy suffers from breast cancer. Ironically they met during an environmental protest back when Reagan was President.

Three decades later Paul's daughter Jamie believes the toxic chemical spill is the pivotal point of her life though she was only two at the time. She successfully becomes a political activist, a soldier, "Chemical Jamie", in the war to save the embattled planet.

Heather West seeks vengeance from the family that successfully won a lawsuit against her father that ruined him and destroyed her heritage. When she makes it big time on television, it furthers her life's goal to destroy the internationally popular daughter of the man who devastated her dad. The two daughters are on a collision course that has global impact neither of their fathers could have remotely envisioned.

Michael Beres paints a bleak ashen future on a planet devastated by environmental disasters. The story line focuses on how the two women react to the key identical incident in their respective lives. One uses this to become a crusader while the other uses it to spread culpability on others for what she and her family lost. There is no question on what side of the environment argument Mr. Beres is on as his twenty-first century looks as if mankind is one step away from extinction yet a thousand points of light still shine with hope to save the world.

Harriet Klausner