Preliminary Inspection - Details

An important part of a preliminary inspection is a survey of the conditions in the immediate vicinity of the drums or containers.

Certain instruments may assist with the inspection of the vicinity. Some examples of these tools include the following:

• Gamma radiation survey instruments (to detect radiation)
• Organic vapor monitors (to detect gases and vapors that are often odorless and colorless)
• Combustible gas meters (to detect gases such as methane and butane)

During the preliminary inspection, the crew should look for marks, symbols, or words on the drums or containers that might indicate hazardous materials are inside (for example, the words radioactive, explosive, corrosive, toxic, or flammable). If a drum does not have a label, then for safety's sake, employees should always assume that the unlabeled drums contain hazardous materials.

Note that labels may not always be accurate. Drums are often mislabeled. This often happens when a drum or container is reused and still has the old label from previous hazardous materials in place. Only proper sampling and testing (characterization) will reveal a drum or container's contents. Therefore, do not assume that a drum's label reflects its contents.

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