hazard

to indicate a hazard from a flammable substance. A hazard is a potential source of harm. Substances, events, or circumstances can constitute hazards when their nature would potentially allow them to cause damage to health, life, property, or any other interest of value. The probability of that harm being realized in a specific incident, combined with the magnitude of potential harm, make up its risk. This term is often used synonymously in colloquial speech. Hazards can be classified in several ways which are not mutually exclusive. They can be classified by causing actor (for example, natural or anthropogenic), by physical nature (e.g. biological or chemical) or by type of damage (e.g., health hazard or environmental hazard). Examples of natural disasters with highly harmful impacts on a society are floods, droughts, earthquakes, tropical cyclones, lightning strikes, volcanic activity and wildfires. Technological and anthropogenic hazards include, for example, structural collapses, transport accidents, accidental or intentional explosions, and release of toxic materials. The term climate hazard is used in the context of climate change. These are hazards that stem from climate-related events and can be associated with global warming, such as wildfires, floods, droughts, sea level rise.…

to indicate a hazard from a flammable substance. A hazard is a potential source of harm. Substances, events, or circumstances can constitute hazards when their nature would potentially allow them to cause damage to health, life, property, or any other interest of value. The probability of that harm being realized in a specific incident, combined with the magnitude of potential harm, make up its risk. This term is often used synonymously in colloquial speech. Hazards can be classified in several ways which are not mutually exclusive. They can be classified by causing actor (for example, natural or anthropogenic), by physical nature (e.g. biological or chemical) or by type of damage (e.g., health hazard or environmental hazard). Examples of natural disasters with highly harmful impacts on a society are floods, droughts, earthquakes, tropical cyclones, lightning strikes, volcanic activity and wildfires. Technological and anthropogenic hazards include, for example, structural collapses, transport accidents, accidental or intentional explosions, and release of toxic materials. The term climate hazard is used in the context of climate change. These are hazards that stem from climate-related events and can be associated with global warming, such as wildfires, floods, droughts, sea level rise. Climate hazards can combine with other hazards and result in compound event losses (see also loss and damage). For example, the climate hazard of heat can combine with the hazard of poor air quality. Or the climate hazard flooding can combine with poor water quality. In physics terms, common theme across many forms of hazards is the presence of energy that can cause damage, as it can happen with chemical energy, mechanical energy or thermal energy. This damage can affect different valuable interests, and the severity of the associated risk varies. ==Classifications== Hazards can be classified in several ways. These categories are not mutually exclusive which means that one hazard can fall into several categories. For example, water pollution with toxic chemicals is an anthropogenic hazard as well as an environmental hazard. One of the classification methods is by specifying the origin of the hazard. One key concept in identifying a hazard is the presence of stored energy that, when released, can cause damage. The stored energy can occur in many forms: chemical, mechanical, thermal, radioactive, electrical, etc. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) explains that "each hazard is characterized by its location, intensity or magnitude, frequency and probability". A distinction can also be made between rapid-onset natural hazards, technological hazards, and social hazards, which are described as being of sudden occurrence and relatively short duration, and the consequences of longer-term environmental degradation such as desertification and drought. Hazards may be grouped according to their characteristics. These factors are related to geophysical events, which are not process specific: Areal extent of damage zone Intensity of impact at a point Duration of impact at a point Rate of onset of the event Predictability of the event ====Seismic hazard==== Tsunamis can be caused by geophysical hazards, such as in the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. The earthquake caused a massive tsunami with waves up to 30 m (100 ft) high, referred to by British and Commonwealth media as the Boxing Day tsunami, after the Boxing Day holiday, or the Asian tsunami, which devastated communities along the surrounding coasts of the Indian Ocean, killing an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries, especially in Aceh in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu in India, and Khao Lak in Thailand. Although generally a natural phenomenon, earthquakes can sometimes be induced by human interventions, such as injection wells, large underground nuclear explosions, excavation of mines, or reservoirs. ====Volcanic hazard==== === Health hazard === for health hazards. Hazards that would affect the health of exposed persons, usually having an acute or chronic illness as the consequence. Fatality would not normally be an immediate consequence. Health hazards may cause measurable changes in the body which are generally indicated by the development of signs and symptoms in the exposed persons, or non-measurable, subjective symptoms. ==By status== Hazards are sometimes classified into three modes or statuses: Dormant—The situation environment is currently affected. For instance, a hillside may be unstable, with the potential for a landslide, but there is nothing below or on the hillside that could be affected. Armed—People, property, or environment are in potential harm's way. Active—A harmful incident involving the hazard has actually occurred. Often this is referred to not as an "active hazard" but as an accident, emergency, incident, or disaster. ===Hazard symbol=== ==References== ==External links==

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