Final answer:
The five commonly recognized hazardous substances include toxic, corrosive, flammable, reactive, and radioactive substances, each presenting unique dangers such as causing harm or death, damaging materials, catching fire, exploding, and causing cancer.
Step-by-step explanation:
The five commonly recognized hazardous substances and their danger potential are as follows:
- Toxic substances can cause serious harm or death if inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the skin.
- Corrosive materials can destroy or irreversibly damage another substance they come in contact with by a chemical reaction.
- Flammable substances can catch fire easily at room temperature.
- Reactive chemicals are unstable and can cause explosions, release dangerous gases, or create other hazardous conditions when mixed with certain substances.
- Radioactive materials can damage and kill cells and are carcinogenic.
Understanding and recognizing the dangers of these substances is critical for safety in environments where they may be present. Identification of these hazards is often done with labels such as the NFPA hazard diamond or through classification systems like the OSHA list of highly hazardous chemicals and the US EPA's Characteristic Hazardous Wastes.