- Email: [email protected]
Handbook of reactive chemical hazards, 3rd edition
229
laser safety”, and in this he is largely successful. The text is easily readable, well illustrated and covers all the factors needed to ensure the safe operation of lasers in an environment that enables the user to work without unnecessary restrictions. The book is clearly aimed at a U.S. audience. Some attention to the needs of other readers would have been welcome, but nevertheless the book is recommended as providing an eminently readable account for all those interested in the subject of laser safety. D.W. Widginton Health and Safety Executive Buxton, Derbyshire, U.K.
Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards, 3rd Edition, by L. Bretherick, The Butterworth Group, Sevenoaks, Kent, U.K., 1985, hardback, f 85.00. ISBN: 408-01388-5. This is the much-awaited third edition of Mr. Bretherick’s excellent reference book, first published in 1975 and revised in 1979. Earlier editions have become essential manuals for safety officers, researchers and students alike, a compliment to the enormous amount of research that has gone into the compilation of this book. Several important changes have been incorporated into the third edition, which contains title entries for reactions involving nearly 5000 substances. Compounds are identified by their IUPAC-based name, CAS number and empirical formula together with an indication of whether they are of high fire potential. These entries now appear in Section 1 and are listed in order of empirical molecular formula using C and H first, if present, then all other elements alphabetically. Thus, by knowing the empirical formula, reactive hazards of a substance with other materials can quickly be referred to in terms of a brief description of the reaction followed by a full literature reference. This is the key section of the book, covering such diverse entries as the explosive decomposition of ethylene and the reaction between plutonium and carbon tetrachloride. The Class, Group and Topic section then follows in a much expanded chapter describing such relatively modern topics as accelerating rate calorimetry and runaway reactions. This section also serves as an excellent glossary of terms for those not familiar with all the topics associated with reactive hazards, as well as summarizing the main reaction hazards associated with classes and groups of substances. One entry in this section refers to the maximum reaction heat which is quoted against many of the entries in Section 1. These figures, taken from tables in Yoshida’s book [l] refer to the reaction heat that can be produced from one gram of a binary mixture at the composition calculated to produce maximum effect. Thus, an entry of “MRH 2.43/54” against zinc as a reactant with carbon tetrachloride indi-
230
&es that a maximum heat of 2.43 kJ/g could be evolved with a 54% concentration of zinc in the solvent. This not only identifies a reaction hazard bit quantifies the effect to a certain extent. This section is also very wideranging, covering subjects such as dry cell batteries which have exploded due to gassing caused by connection with reversed polarity, rocket propellants, sponge blowing agents and a can of beans which exploded in a laboratory oven causing extensive damage! The final pages of the book contain a more comprehensive list of fire related data (flash points, explosive limits etc.) than the second edition with information on over 500 substances together with an index of the Class or Group titles used in the first section. These alterations and additions have swollen the 1300 pages of the second edition into over 1800 pages in this new edition giving an idea of the amount of revision that has been undertaken. 1
Yoshida, ment.,
T. Handbook
of Hazardous
Reactions
with
Chemicals,
Tokyo
Fire
Depart-
1980.
D.P. Cutler Health and Safety Executiue Warpur Hill, Buxton, U.K.
Introduction to Safety Science, by A. Kuhlmann, translated from the German by H. Hermann. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo, 1986, 234 Figs., 458 pp., hardcover, DM 248, ISBN: 3-54096192-5. In many respects this is a unique book. The author has attempted, and largely succeeded, to put between two covers most of the current basic theory on which the whole edifice of modern safety technology rests. He has paid particular attention to quantifying and underpinning with mathematics anything that has so far been qu~tified or analyzed in this field. In this comprehensive and interdisciplinary textbook, the author, who works for TOV Rheinland, one of the insurance supervisory bodies set up by the trade associations of West German industry, has been helped by a number of professional colleagues whom he acknowledges but unfortunately does not name. The book deals with safety in general and does not confine itself to the occupational aspect; some areas of environmental health are also covered. The approach is along the lines of an analysis of the manmachine--environment system. It starts with a chapter on the relationship between cybernetics and safety and goes on to a thorough account of safety analysis, both qu~itative and quantitative, providing a grounding in system functions as well as incident sequence analysis. It then progresses to the machine as a safety factor under operational stresses such as temperature and pressure and as a reliability
laser safety”, and in this he is largely successful. The text is easily readable, well illustrated and covers all the factors needed to ensure the safe operation of lasers in an environment that enables the user to work without unnecessary restrictions. The book is clearly aimed at a U.S. audience. Some attention to the needs of other readers would have been welcome, but nevertheless the book is recommended as providing an eminently readable account for all those interested in the subject of laser safety. D.W. Widginton Health and Safety Executive Buxton, Derbyshire, U.K.
Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards, 3rd Edition, by L. Bretherick, The Butterworth Group, Sevenoaks, Kent, U.K., 1985, hardback, f 85.00. ISBN: 408-01388-5. This is the much-awaited third edition of Mr. Bretherick’s excellent reference book, first published in 1975 and revised in 1979. Earlier editions have become essential manuals for safety officers, researchers and students alike, a compliment to the enormous amount of research that has gone into the compilation of this book. Several important changes have been incorporated into the third edition, which contains title entries for reactions involving nearly 5000 substances. Compounds are identified by their IUPAC-based name, CAS number and empirical formula together with an indication of whether they are of high fire potential. These entries now appear in Section 1 and are listed in order of empirical molecular formula using C and H first, if present, then all other elements alphabetically. Thus, by knowing the empirical formula, reactive hazards of a substance with other materials can quickly be referred to in terms of a brief description of the reaction followed by a full literature reference. This is the key section of the book, covering such diverse entries as the explosive decomposition of ethylene and the reaction between plutonium and carbon tetrachloride. The Class, Group and Topic section then follows in a much expanded chapter describing such relatively modern topics as accelerating rate calorimetry and runaway reactions. This section also serves as an excellent glossary of terms for those not familiar with all the topics associated with reactive hazards, as well as summarizing the main reaction hazards associated with classes and groups of substances. One entry in this section refers to the maximum reaction heat which is quoted against many of the entries in Section 1. These figures, taken from tables in Yoshida’s book [l] refer to the reaction heat that can be produced from one gram of a binary mixture at the composition calculated to produce maximum effect. Thus, an entry of “MRH 2.43/54” against zinc as a reactant with carbon tetrachloride indi-
230
&es that a maximum heat of 2.43 kJ/g could be evolved with a 54% concentration of zinc in the solvent. This not only identifies a reaction hazard bit quantifies the effect to a certain extent. This section is also very wideranging, covering subjects such as dry cell batteries which have exploded due to gassing caused by connection with reversed polarity, rocket propellants, sponge blowing agents and a can of beans which exploded in a laboratory oven causing extensive damage! The final pages of the book contain a more comprehensive list of fire related data (flash points, explosive limits etc.) than the second edition with information on over 500 substances together with an index of the Class or Group titles used in the first section. These alterations and additions have swollen the 1300 pages of the second edition into over 1800 pages in this new edition giving an idea of the amount of revision that has been undertaken. 1
Yoshida, ment.,
T. Handbook
of Hazardous
Reactions
with
Chemicals,
Tokyo
Fire
Depart-
1980.
D.P. Cutler Health and Safety Executiue Warpur Hill, Buxton, U.K.
Introduction to Safety Science, by A. Kuhlmann, translated from the German by H. Hermann. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo, 1986, 234 Figs., 458 pp., hardcover, DM 248, ISBN: 3-54096192-5. In many respects this is a unique book. The author has attempted, and largely succeeded, to put between two covers most of the current basic theory on which the whole edifice of modern safety technology rests. He has paid particular attention to quantifying and underpinning with mathematics anything that has so far been qu~tified or analyzed in this field. In this comprehensive and interdisciplinary textbook, the author, who works for TOV Rheinland, one of the insurance supervisory bodies set up by the trade associations of West German industry, has been helped by a number of professional colleagues whom he acknowledges but unfortunately does not name. The book deals with safety in general and does not confine itself to the occupational aspect; some areas of environmental health are also covered. The approach is along the lines of an analysis of the manmachine--environment system. It starts with a chapter on the relationship between cybernetics and safety and goes on to a thorough account of safety analysis, both qu~itative and quantitative, providing a grounding in system functions as well as incident sequence analysis. It then progresses to the machine as a safety factor under operational stresses such as temperature and pressure and as a reliability