ABSTRACT

This chapter introduces safety-hazard impact metrics in a similar fashion as the environmental impact metrics. The Gupta-Babu hazard waste index follows the National Fire Protection Association scoring scale ranging between 0 and 4 for flammability and reactivity contributors, the Dow Chemical rating for corrosivity, and threshold limit values for the toxicity rating. If a chemical has a hazardous property, then it has the potential to do harm to occupational workers and others exposed to it or to do harm to the environment if it is released in one of the four compartments: air, water, soil, and sediment. The safety-hazard index is a measure of the degree of greenness of a chemical reaction or synthesis with respect to a set of safety-hazard impact potentials. Nitrobenzene is the most hazardous input material. Copper carbonate and sodium silicate are the most hazardous waste materials.