Chemical, Biological and Nuclear Agents and Incidents Research Paper

Chemical, Biological and Nuclear Agents and Incidents - Research Paper Example There are four types of classifying various hazards using a color-coding system, which are the following: Blue (for threats to health or physical injuries), Red (flammability), Yellow (reactivity) and last, White (water reactivity). A new classification which uses the symbol of a radioactive propeller has been added to indicate a material is radioactive. This paper tackles the common chemical, biological and nuclear agents deemed to be dangerous and common incidents involving them. Most of the hazardous materials (hazmat, for short) are essentially man-made although a few of these are naturally-occurring, such as certain types of anthrax and radioactive elements. The three major categories of hazmat agents are discussed individually, and incidents involving the same materials, such as accidents during transport and spills or leaks during production. Only some 39 elements as found in the Periodic Table of Elements are actually hazardous, the rest of the materials are the results of combining these elements into various mixtures and compounds which made them hazardous if these are not handled properly (Burke, 2003, p. 43). Chemicals – it is the U. S. Department of Transportation (DOT) that came up with the nine major classifications for hazardous chemicals that are now widely used. These classes are mostly explosives, compressed gases, flammable liquids, flammable solids, oxidizers, poisons, radioactive materials, corrosives and last, miscellaneous hazardous materials (OSU, 1997, p. 1). Industrial chemical compounds are often long-lasting (they take years and decades to degrade to be harmless) and find their way into water supplies, lakes, rivers and oceans and along the food chain. Research conducted eliminated smoking, drinking, lifestyle and diets as probable factors and the polluted environment is the most likely cause of many cancers (Steingraber, 1999,