Toxic Tort Legal Glossary: I

Incineration: The destruction of solid, liquid, or gaseous wastes by controlled burning at high temperatures. Hazardous organic compounds are converted to ash, carbon dioxide, and water. Burning destroys organics, reduces the volume of waste, and vaporizes water and other liquids the wastes may contain. The residue ash produced may contain some hazardous material, such as non-combustible heavy metals, concentrated from the original waste.

Incompatible Waste: A waste unsuitable for mixing with another waste or material because it may react to form a hazard.

Indoor Air Pollution: Chemical, physical, or biological contaminants in indoor air.

Indoor Air: Breathing air inside a habitable structure, often highly polluted because of lack of exchange with fresh oxygen from outdoors. Solvents, smoke, paints, furniture glues, carpet padding, and other synthetic chemicals trapped inside contribute to an often unhealthy environment.

Industrial Source Reduction: Practices that reduce the amount of any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant entering any waste stream or otherwise released into the environment; also reduces the threat to public health and the environment associated with such releases. Term includes equipment or technology modifications, substitution of raw materials, and improvements in housekeeping, maintenance, training or inventory control.

Industrial Waste: Unwanted materials produced in or eliminated from an industrial operation and categorized under a variety of headings, such as liquid wastes, sludge, solid wastes, and hazardous wastes.

Infectious Agent: Any organism, such as a virus or bacterium, that is pathogenic and capable of being communicated by invasion and multiplication in body tissues.

Infectious Waste: Hazardous waste with infectious characteristics, including: contaminated animal waste; human blood and blood products; isolation waste, pathological waste; and discarded sharps (needles, scalpels or broken medical instruments.)

Ingestion: Type of exposure through the mouth.

Inhalation: Type of exposure through the lungs.

Interagency Collaboration: Interagency collaboration is the process of coordinating the responsibilities of the agencies involved at a hazardous waste site by addressing community concerns, whether health issues or environmental quality concerns, surrounding a site.  Outcomes of interagency collaboration could include reduction of duplicative efforts among agencies, improved coordination of risk communication and public health messaging, and/or improving the ability of the agencies to address the environmental health needs of the community.

Interrogatories: A set of written questions to a party to a lawsuit asked by the opposing party as part of the pre-trial discovery process. These questions must be answered, normally with help from one's attorney, in writing under oath under penalty of perjury within a specified period of time, such as 30 days.

Irreversible Effect: Effect characterized by the inability of the body to partially or fully repair injury caused by a toxic agent.

Irritant: A substance that can cause irritation of the skin, eyes, or respiratory system. An irritant can cause an acute effect from a single high-level exposure, or chronic effects from repeated, low-level exposures. Some examples of irritants are chlorine, nitric acid, and various pesticides.