How to deal with irritant gas poisoning

Irritating gas is a harmful gas that produces irritating effects on the eyes, respiratory mucosa, and skin. Chlorine, ammonia, phosgene, nitrogen oxides, and hydrogen chloride are common.

Industrial characteristics of irritating gas poisoning

The irritant gas damages people mainly by local stimuli and damages. The severity of damage is mainly related to the concentration of inhaled toxicants, the speed of absorption, and the contact time. When the stimulatory effect is too strong, it will cause systemic reactions.

From the perspective of time, China's irritant gas poisoning cases have high incidence in spring and summer.

Analysis of poisoning cases over the years, the main poison is chlorine poisoning, followed by inorganic acids, ammonia and phosgene.

From an industry perspective, the high incidence of poisoning is a chemical industry, followed by the textile and clothing industry, manufacturing, services and commerce and water treatment, and again food brewing, transportation and warehousing.

The positions that occurred were mainly concentrated on production, overhaul, cleaning and blasting positions, followed by handling, painting, welding, weaving, and gluing.

Hardware measures to prevent poisoning

Most of the causes of irritating gas poisoning are caused by running, running, dripping or leaking in the production process. The following measures are recommended to prevent poisoning:

(1) The quality of production facilities and equipment must be qualified and regularly checked and maintained.

(2) The operator must strictly follow the safety operation procedures and try to prevent the running, running, dripping or leaking in the process.

(3) Do a good job of monitoring the production environment regularly to identify and rectify the hidden dangers of occupational poisoning protection.

(4) Select suitable personal protective equipment and do individual protection.

(5) The workplace is equipped with the necessary emergency equipment.

(6) Adhere to the occupational health check of workers before and during their occupation, and take corresponding measures for workers with occupational contraindications.

Protective equipment selection criteria

The irritating gas is mainly exposed through the respiratory tract, skin, or eyes. Operators should focus on the protection of the respiratory, skin, and eyes. According to the hazard level determined by on-site monitoring data, respiratory protective equipment with appropriate protection level should be selected.

(1) Respiratory protection: Different respiratory protection products are expected to have different multiples of decreasing concentrations of pollutants under different configurations. The occupational health and safety management department of the employer shall, under the premise of fully identifying hazards and comprehensively assessing the exposure risk of the workers, select suitable respiratory protection products according to the requirements of the national standard “Respiratory protective equipment selection, application and maintenance” (GB/T18664). .

a. If the field concentration is less than 10 times the national standard, half-mask respirator can be selected;

b. If the on-site concentration is higher than the national standard by 10 times and less than 100 times, a full-facepiece respirator should be selected;

c. If the on-site concentration is more than 100 times the national standard, choose a powered air-ventilator, a positive-pressure long-pipe respirator, or a suitable respiratory protection product.

(2) Eye protection: When the irritant gas stimulates the eyes and skin at the same time, it is preferable to use a full-scale respirator and wear anti-chemical goggles, goggles, etc. to prevent the eye from touching the liquid directly, causing burns or tissue damage.

(3) Skin protection: When transporting or using irritant gas cylinders, cans, or maintenance and gas pipelines, wear protective clothing and protective gloves against skin frostbite; during the preparation and production of acid and alkali, Consider corrosiveness, wear chemical protective clothing and protective gloves.

How to use protective equipment

(1) When learning to use occupational poisoning knowledge of close-fitting respirators such as half-masks and full-face masks, the users should pass suitability test.

(2) The use of filter-type respiratory protection products should be based on GB2890-2009 to determine the use of the filter box on the possible contact with the gas filter function, such as chlorine gas need to select the chlorine filter module; sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride and other acid gases should be used Anti-acid gas cartridge/tank, ammonia gas should be used to prevent ammonia gas poison box; phosgene protection is special gas protection, should consult with the manufacturer of the respirator, choose suitable filter filter respirator, or preferred for Air breathing apparatus.

(3) If all types of gases (chlorine, ammonia, etc.) exist at the same time in the workplace, a multi-purpose cartridge/canister that can cover these gases should be used.

(4) For workplaces with acid mists, dust filter combinations should be used.

(5) For special types of gases, such as nitrogen oxides, phosphine, etc., belong to the protection of special gases. If there is a lack of a dedicated effective filter box/tank, priority should be given to the use of air supply type respiratory protection products.

(6) The following measures shall be taken immediately when the emergency rescue, or preparation for entering an unknown concentration of the environment, and the concentration of harmful gases in the workplace have reached immediate danger to life or health:

a. Use a positive pressure air respirator with a full face mask;

b. With the aid of a respirator suitable for assisting escape, use a long-barrel positive-pressure respirator equipped with a full-face mask or hood, and use of a filter-type respirator is prohibited.

(7) Stimulating gas cylinders, tank storage personnel, or persons entering gas-dispersible pumps, pipelines, valves, etc., which are likely to cause gas escape, should be equipped with a suitable respirator for escape (sulfur dioxide, etc., using acid gas escape breathing apparatus Ammonia uses ammonia to escape the respirator; when multiple gases coexist, it should choose a comprehensive escape respirator).

The performance of irritating gas poisoning

Chlorine is a yellow-green gas with a strong irritating odour that produces hydrochloric acid and hypochlorous acid when exposed to water. Electrolysis of salt, tap water disinfection, and synthetic pigments, fibers, drugs, paper, and other manufacturing industries may be exposed to chlorine.

Most of the acute chlorine poisoning is caused by the running, running, dripping, and leaking of chlorine in the workplace. What are the symptoms of acute chlorine poisoning?

Inhaling a small amount of chlorine can lead to obvious irritation symptoms such as photophobia, tearing, sore throat, cough, etc.; then there will be chest tightness, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing and headache, dizziness symptoms. If you inhale extremely high concentrations of chlorine for a short period of time, you can also cause coma or even death.

Sulfur dioxide is a colorless gas with a strong pungent odor

(1) Sulphur dioxide is exposed to the wet mucous surface and can generate sulfurous acid and sulfuric acid, which are very irritating to the eyes and respiratory tract.

(2) Exposure to a small amount of sulfur dioxide can cause eye burning, tearing, sneezing, itching, coughing, and other symptoms. Severe chest tightness, chest pain, breathing difficulties, and even acute chemical pneumonia can occur.

(3) inhalation of high concentrations of sulfur dioxide can occur pulmonary edema, pulmonary edema can occur frequently cough, spit out a lot of white or pink foam-like sputum.

Phosgene is also called carbon? Chlorine. It is a colorless gas at room temperature and has the smell of moldy licorice or rotting fruit.

Phosgene toxicity is high, can cause serious health damage, and has irritating effects on human eyes and respiratory tract. According to the different exposure concentrations, poisoning can appear tears, photophobia, throat discomfort, cough, chest tightness and other symptoms, severe poisoning, severe pulmonary edema and acute respiratory distress syndrome, and may die of respiratory failure.

Ammonia is a colorless gas with a strong irritating odor. Ammonia poisoning shows different behavior due to different contact methods:

(1) Respiratory inhalation, short-term inhalation can cause sore throat, cough, sputum with blood, chest tightness, dyspnea; poisoning with dizziness, headache, nausea, severe pulmonary edema, laryngeal edema, asphyxia, respiratory distress syndrome Sign.

(2) Skin contact can cause burns.

(3) Eye contact can cause corneal perforation, cloudy lens, iritis, and even blindness.

(4) Systemic poisoning, when ammonia is absorbed into the blood, it can cause nervous system poisoning, causing drowsiness, coma, and even heartbeat and respiratory arrest.

Hydrogen chloride is an irritating gas that emits an acidic mist in the air and its aqueous solution is hydrochloric acid. When hydrogen chloride is exposed to water, hydrochloric acid is produced. If hydrochloric acid mist or hydrochloric acid mist is inhaled inadvertently, it will cause strong irritating and corrosive effects on the respiratory tract, causing nausea burning sensation and redness, throat, throat edema, which may cause serious Chemical pneumonia, pulmonary edema and even life-threatening. After exposure to acid mist on the skin and eyes, redness, congestion, and even chemical burns may occur locally.

First aid after poisoning

(1) If a large amount of irritant gas is inhaled, immediately remove the contact from the environment, move to a well-ventilated place with fresh air, pay attention to warmth and rest; if breathing stops, take artificial respiration and consult a doctor as soon as possible.

(2) Immediately after the eye is in direct contact with the irritating gas or its solution, immediately flush (rinse) the eyes with a large amount of water, rinse the upper and lower eyelids from time to time, and seek immediate medical attention.

(3) After the skin is in direct contact with the irritating gas or its solution, the contaminated clothing should be promptly removed, and the contaminated skin should be immediately flushed with water and promptly referred to a doctor.

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