Home Chemicals assignment

Resources/Waste: Home Chemicals

 

Introduction

Chemical Connections

Chemicals are everywhere, in the air you breathe, in the food you eat, and in the chair youre sitting on. Moreover, youre mostly chemicals. Ninety nine percent of the human body is composed of just 6 chemical elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. After you die, youll decompose into hydrogen, nitrogen, water, ammonia, carbon dioxide, phosphoric acid, and sulfuric acid. So, from chemicals we come and to chemicals we go.

 

Fig. 1: Periodic Table (NASA)

 

Chemical elements are substances that contain one kind of atom and cannot be separated into simpler substances. There are 116 known chemical elements, of which 91 occur naturally. The other 25 are man-made. These elements are listed in the periodic table. Go to. Scroll down below the table and youll see the elements listed. Many of them will be familiar to you.

 

Chemical compounds are formed by the combination of two or more elements. The one youre probably most familiar with is H20, two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, also known as water. Other common compounds include sodium chloride (NaCl) or salt, glucose (C12H22O11) or sugar, and CH3COOC6H4COOH or aspirin. Chemicals are used in a wide range of industrial and commercial applications including plastics, adhesives, absorbents, fertilizers, detergents, dyes, explosives, oils, inks, lubricants, metals, paper, insecticides, pharmaceuticals, solvents, waxes, photography, food additives and on and on. So, you see, chemicals are everywhere.

 

There are several ways to classify chemicals. Organic chemicals are those chemicals that contain the element carbon, C. Organic chemicals can be broken down by micro-organisms and reactions with other chemicals, as well as photo chemically by ultraviolet or visible light. The rate at which a chemical degrades is expressed as half-life, the amount of time it takes for half of the chemical to be converted into some other chemical or element. Generally, organic chemicals biodegrade or decompose more rapidly than inorganic chemicals, which do not contain carbon. Inorganic chemicals include salt, asbestos, and silicates as well as minerals such as iron, aluminum, and phosphorus, among others.

 

Chemicals can also be either natural or synthetic. Natural chemicals are those which are found occurring in the environment which are not introduced by humans. Synthetic chemicals are those which are developed by humans and do not exist in nature. It might be easy to assume that natural, organic chemicals are less harmful to humans. This is not the case as many poisons come from plants and animals.

 

Chemicals in Your Home

This exercise involves conducting an inventory of the types of chemicals in your home. As this is a multi-part exercise, it might be wise to save the exercise on your hard drive and then use the saved file for completing your answer. This way you wont lost any of the work youve completed if you machines freezes or crashes.

 

Activity Household Chemical Inventory and Assessment

Identify one product that you use for each of the categories on the Activity Sheet. If you do not use a particular category of product, simply enter the phrase “do not use” and explain why. For example, if you do not use pet care products, enter do not use in the Product Name column and do not have a pet in the What the Warning Says column.

 

For each product identified that you do use indicate the following:

1. The product name

2. What the product does, also known as the product service

3. Whether there is some type of warning about using the product.

4. What the warning says.

 

Answer questions 1 & 2 on the Activity Sheet when you have completed the inventory.

 

After doing this, select three products from your household product list which you think may be hazardous based on the warnings listed on the products. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines hazardous as any material that is ignitable, corrosive, explosive, or toxic to humans, plants or animals. List the three products on the Activity Sheet.

 

The Consumer Products Information Database (CPID) maintains a database that contains a wide variety of information on over 21,000 consumer products. Information contained in the data base includes the chemical ingredients, the manufacturer and contact information, as well as any possible acute and chronic effects associated with the chemicals that make up the products.

 

Go to the CPID website at the following link:In the Quick Search box on the upper-right side of the screen, look up the first potentially hazardous product you have listed. Scroll down the page until you come to the link View Safety Data Sheet (SDS) (below Health Effects Information), follow the directions on the remainder of the Activity Sheet and answer the questions.

 

 

 

References

http://chemistry.about.com/cs/5/f/blpoison.htm

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/285/8/1059

http://www.scorecard.org/

http://www.chennaionline.com/science/Environment/harm.asp

http://www.worldwildlife.org/toxics/basic.cfm

http://www.wwf.pl/0406281352_newsen.php

http://chemistry.about.com/cs/5/f/blpoison.htm

http://www.mamashealth.com/doc/cleanprod.asp

http://www.touregypt.net/chemicals.htm

http://es.epa.gov/techinfo/facts/safe-fs.html

http://www.chemicalindustryarchives.org/factfiction/testing.asp

http://www.scorecard.org/chemical-profiles/def/hpv.html

ESA21: Environmental Science Activities

Activity Sheet Home Chemicals

 

Name:

 

Product Category	Product Name	What Product Does	Warning (yes/no)	What the Warning Says
Auto Products
Pesticides
Personal Care
Arts & Crafts
Inside the Home
Landscape & Yard
Home Maintenance
Pet Care

 

 

1. (5 points) Was this inventory difficult to complete? Why or why not?

 

 

 

2. (5 points) Are you surprised by the results of the inventory? If so, in what way?

 

 

 

 

Potentially Hazardous Products
1.	2.	3.

 

 

MSDS

3. (5 points) Where does the Health Effects Information come from?

 

4. (5 points) Who develops or prepares the Safety Data Sheet (SDS)?

5. (5 points) Does the SDS provide any health effects or first aid information?

6. (5 points) Who is SDSnotintended for?

7. (5 points) Are SDSs relevant to consumers?

 

 

Go back to the product you searched and look under Health Effect Information to answer the following questions.

 

8. (5 points) What is the HMIS rating for your product? (Note: Your product may not have a health rating. If it does not, choose another product that does.

9. (5 points) What does that rating mean?

10. (5 points) What is the flammability rating for your product?

11. (5 points) What does that rating mean?

12. (5 points) What is the reactivity rating for your product?

13. (5 points) What does that rating mean?

 

Now scroll down further until you come to the section Acute health effects and Chronic health effects. Answer the following questions.

 

14. (5 points) What does the website say about any acute health effects from the product?

15. (5 points) What does the website say about any chronic health effects from the product?

16. (5 points) What is the difference between an acute and chronic health effect?

17. (5 points) Based on your research/analysis, how hazardous is the product?

 

Go back to the NIH website and research your other two products. If a product you selected is not listed, pick another product from your original list of eight. At the conclusion of this step in the exercise, you should have looked up and found results for 3 products.

 

18. (5 points) Rank order your 3 products based on your assessment of how hazardous they are and list below from most to least hazardous.