Reactives Alliance

The Chlorine Institute has partnered with The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other groups and associations to form the Chemical Reactivity Hazards Management Alliance whose goal is to reduce reactive chemical incidents.

Chemicals have the ability to react when exposed to other chemicals or certain physical conditions. When chemical reactions are not properly managed, they can have harmful, or even catastrophic consequences, such as toxic fumes, fires, and explosions.

One of the Chlorine Institute’s long-term goals is to achieve zero releases, injuries and process safety incidents. Chlorine gas and sodium hypochlorite (bleach) are both powerful oxidizers and thus have the potential to react with many substances. Understanding the reactive nature of chlorine and sodium hypochlorite should be an inherent part of any occupational or process safety program concerned with these two chemicals.

Additional information about the potential reactive dangers of these two chemicals is available at About Chlorine and About Sodium Hypochlorite.  In addition the Alliance has developed an online guide to chemical reactivity hazard standards as well as some excellent general resource materials on recognizing, evaluating, and preventing reactivity hazards.