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Disaster Advice Glossary
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Disaster recovery and restoration can be veiled in mystery to the many who have not undertaken specific training. This glossary explains technical terms to assist both report writing and the understanding of those technical terms so often misunderstood.
Definition
| Adverse Health effects: |
The ability of a compound or agent to cause acute or chronic health effects. See Acute, Aeroallergens, Allergens, Chronic, Toxic, Toxins, Neurotoxins |
| Assimilative Capacity: |
The ability of air, water, or soil to effectively degrade, decompose or disperse chemical or biological substances. Mitigation Note: As in the case of sewage saturation in soil under a building, the rate of introduction of the sewage pollutants to the soil, may exceed the rate at which the soil can assimilate all of the sewage and effluent matter. Health Note: If the substructure soil cannot assimilate and decompose the sewage matter through bioaugmentation in situ, adverse health effects may occur to human health of the building occupants. |
| Biological Contaminates in Buildings: |
The presence of a) biologically derived aerosols, gases, and vapours of a kind and concentration likely to cause disease or predispose persons to adverse health effects; b) inappropriate concentrations of outdoor bioaerosols, especially in buildings designed to prevent their entry; c) indoor biological growth and remnants of growth that may become airborne and to which people may be exposed. |
| Chronic: |
Long term exposures, which over time will cause adverse health effects to buildings and individuals. Health and Safety Note: Exposures to contaminated building environments over months or longer, are known to result in permanent or long-lasting health impairments. See Acute |
| Decontamination: |
Acceptable mechanical methods to remove a certain contaminate by. Health and safety requirements and mitigation measures necessary to remove a pollutant or contaminate. Sewage Mitigation Note: a) The physical removal of fresh, gray and sewage water and its microbiological entities. b) The ability to salvage, clean and disinfect damaged building materials and contents. c) In some instances, decontamination means the careful physical removal of damaged and saturated building materials. Hazardous Materials Management Note: With regulated waste, decontamination is the removal of hazardous substances from employees and their equipment to the extent necessary to preclude the occurrence of foreseeable adverse health effects. |
| Hazard Identification: |
The determination of a possible adverse health effect. It is the identification of agents, their frequency, and duration of exposure which may lead to adverse health effects. Health and Safety Note: Hazard identification is the identification of all suspected conditions that may pose inhalation or skin absorption hazards that may be immediately dangerous to life or health, or other conditions resulting serious harm or death. Hazard identification shall be identified early on in the survey and evaluation phase, and it should not be found unexpectedly resulting in exposures to employees. Examples include, confined space entry, harmful atmospheres, potential explosive situations, visible vapor or fume clouds, or environments where biological indicators are present. Hazard identification means any obvious hazard or potential hazard which a qualified person deems to be a known or suspected hazard to human or environmental health. |
| Immediate Danger to Life and Health (IDLH): |
a) The maximum air concentration of a chemical substance from which a healthy person could escape within a 30-minute exposure without irreversible adverse health effects or experiencing impaired health conditions. b) An atmospheric concentration of any toxic, corrosive or asphyxiant substance that poses an immediate threat to life or would cause irreversible or delayed adverse health effects or would interfere with an individual's ability to escape from a dangerous atmosphere. Health and Safety Note: Any other atmospheric condition that is immediately dangerous to live or health, is an immediate hazard that must be avoided. IDLH means any condition that is an immediate or delayed threat to life; or that would cause permanent, negative health effects; or that would interfere with a worker's ability to escape or leave a work area without help. |
| Nuisance Dusts: |
Dusts which are not expected to cause adverse health effects on the lungs, and they are not expected to produce significant biologic organic diseases or toxic affects, when exposure levels are kept under control. Nuisance dusts are irritants, and they are responsible for cause from allergic-like dust responses in some persons. |
| TLV (Threshold Limit Value): |
The daily 8 hour concentration of gases and particulates for which workers can be safely exposed to on a daily basis. Education Note: TLVs refer to airborne concentrations of substances (chemicals in the form of vapors to particulates in the form of respirable particles, for example) and they represent conditions under which it is believed that nearly all workers may be repeatedly exposed, day after day, without adverse health effects. Because of the wide variation in individual susceptibility, however, a small percentage of workers may experience discomfort from some substances at concentrations at or below the threshold limit and the value given for a particular substances. A smaller percentage of workers may be affected more seriously by aggravation of a pre-existing health condition or by development of an occupational illness. Cigarette smoking for example may act to enhance the biological effects of chemicals encountered in the workplace and smokers may experience a reduced immune system inhibiting the bodys defense mechanisms against such toxic substances. A few individuals may also be hyper-susceptible or otherwise unusually responsive to some chemicals including industrial chemicals, because of pre-disposed genetic factors, age, personal habits (e.g., smoking, drugs, alcohol), medication, or previous exposures. Such workers may not be adequately protected from adverse health effects from certain chemicals at concentrations below the TLV. |
| TLV-TWA (Threshold Limit Value - Time Weighted Average): |
The time-weighted average concentration for a conventional 8-hour workday and 40-hour workweek exposure to a substance, to which it is believed that nearly all workers may be repeatedly exposed, day after day, without adverse health effects. |
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The Disaster Advice Glossary operates on TechMerit Technoloy.
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