Editing Toxicity (section)

===Environmental hazards===
An Environmental hazard can be defined as any condition, process, or state adversely affecting the environment. These hazards can be physical or chemical, and present in air, water, and/or soil. These conditions can cause extensive harm to humans and other organisms within an ecosystem.

====Common types of environmental hazards====
* [[water pollution|Water]]: detergents, fertilizer, raw sewage, prescription medication, pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, PCBs
* [[soil contamination|Soil]]: heavy metals, herbicides, pesticides, PCBs
* [[air pollution|Air]]: particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, asbestos, ground-level ozone, lead (from aircraft fuel, mining, and industrial processes)<ref>"Basic Information about Lead Air Pollution." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, 17 Mar. 2017. Web. Beaubier, Jeff, and Barry D. Nussbaum. "Encyclopedia of Quantitative Risk Analysis and Assessment." Wiley. N.p., 15 Sept. 2008. Web.
"Criteria Air Pollutants." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, 2 Mar. 2017. Web. "USEPA List of Priority Pollutants." The Environmental Science of Drinking Water (2005): 243–45. EPA, 2014. Web
"What Are Some Types of Environmental Hazards?" Reference. IAC Publishing, n.d. Web.
</ref>
The EPA maintains a list of priority pollutants for testing and regulation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Priority Pollutant List |url=https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-09/documents/priority-pollutant-list-epa.pdf |date=December 2014 |access-date=2024-07-14 |archive-date=2024-05-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240515002925/https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-09/documents/priority-pollutant-list-epa.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Occupational hazards====
Workers in various occupations may be at a greater level of risk for several types of toxicity, including neurotoxicity.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Environmental neurotoxicology|date=1992|publisher=National Academy Press|others=National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Neurotoxicology and Models for Assessing Risk.|isbn=0-585-14379-X|location=Washington, D.C.|oclc=44957274}}</ref>  The expression "Mad as a hatter" and the "Mad Hatter" of the book [[Alice in Wonderland]] derive from the known occupational toxicity of [[hatters]] who used a toxic chemical for controlling the shape of hats. Exposure to chemicals in the workplace environment may be required for evaluation by industrial hygiene professionals.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc223.htm#_223410000|title=Environmental health criteria: Neurotoxicity risk assessment for human health: Principles and approaches|date=2001|publisher=United Nations Environment Programme, the International Labour Organization and the World Health Organization, Geneva|access-date=2019-12-18|archive-date=2021-02-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227091328/http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc223.htm#_223410000|url-status=live}}</ref>

=====Hazards for small businesses=====
=====Hazards from medical waste and prescription disposal=====
=====Hazards in the arts=====
Hazards in the arts have been an issue for artists for centuries, even though the toxicity of their tools, methods, and materials was not always adequately realized. Lead and cadmium, among other toxic elements, were often incorporated into the names of artist's oil paints and pigments, for example, "lead white" and "cadmium red".

20th-century printmakers and other artists began to be aware of the toxic substances, toxic techniques, and toxic fumes in glues, painting mediums, pigments, and solvents, many of which in their labelling gave no indication of their toxicity. An example was the use of [[xylol]] for cleaning [[silk screens]]. Painters began to notice the dangers of breathing painting mediums and thinners such as [[turpentine]]. Aware of toxicants in studios and workshops, in 1998 printmaker [[Keith Howard]] published ''Non-Toxic Intaglio Printmaking'' which detailed twelve innovative [[Intaglio (printmaking)|Intaglio]]-type printmaking techniques including [[photo etching]], [[digital imaging]], [[Acrylic paint|acrylic]]-resist hand-etching methods, and introducing a new method of [[non-toxic]] [[lithography]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Howard |first1=Keith John |title=Non-toxic Intaglio Printmaking |date=1998 |publisher=Printmaking Resources |isbn=978-0-9683541-0-0 }}{{pn|date=January 2025}}</ref>

====Mapping environmental hazards====
There are many environmental health mapping tools. [[TOXMAP]] is a Geographic Information System (GIS) from the Division of Specialized Information Services<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/|title=Reliable information on K-12 science education, chemistry, toxicology, environmental health, HIV/AIDS, disaster/emergency preparedness and response, and outreach to minority and other specific populations.|access-date=2010-09-21|archive-date=2019-03-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321193634/http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/|url-status=dead}}</ref> of the [[United States National Library of Medicine]] (NLM) that uses maps of the United States to help users visually explore data from the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency]]'s (EPA) [[Toxics Release Inventory]] and [[Superfund]] programs. TOXMAP is a resource funded by the US Federal Government. TOXMAP's chemical and environmental health information is taken from NLM's Toxicology Data Network 
(TOXNET)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/|title=TOXNET|access-date=2010-09-21|archive-date=2019-06-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190611080606/https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[PubMed]], and from other authoritative sources.

====Aquatic toxicity====
[[Aquatic toxicity]] testing subjects key indicator species of [[fish]] or [[crustacea]] to certain concentrations of a substance in their environment to determine the lethality level. Fish are exposed for 96 hours while crustacea are exposed for 48 hours. While GHS does not define toxicity past 100&nbsp;mg/L, the EPA currently lists aquatic toxicity as "practically non-toxic" in concentrations greater than 100 ppm.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.epa.gov/oppefed1/ecorisk_ders/toera_analysis_eco.htm|title=EPA: Ecological risk assessment|access-date=2008-11-04|archive-date=2015-09-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930060202/http://www.epa.gov/oppefed1/ecorisk_ders/toera_analysis_eco.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Exposure
! Category 1
! Category 2
! Category 3
|-
| Acute
| ≤ 1.0&nbsp;mg/L
| ≤ 10&nbsp;mg/L
| ≤ 100&nbsp;mg/L
|-
| Chronic
| ≤ 1.0&nbsp;mg/L
| ≤ 10&nbsp;mg/L
| ≤ 100&nbsp;mg/L
|}

Note: A category 4 is established for chronic exposure, but simply contains any toxic substance which is mostly insoluble, or has no data for acute toxicity.