Chemical Exposures – General Planning and Exercises

This month we’re focusing our blog posts on Chemical Exposures.  As you saw last week, you’re not reporting a lot of serious chemical exposures, but there are other types of exposures that are so high risk that we want to take some time to remind you about these hazards.  They do happen and the information below will help your departments get prepared for such events.  We hope the information will help you get a grip on all you need to know in order to prepare for any hazardous materials events, thus helping you avoid Chemical Exposures.  We’re going to jump right in and just give you a bunch of tips and links to resources.  Good luck!

HazMat Basics

• Both natural and man made materials can be considered hazardous.
• Chemical exposure occurs when hazardous materials (HazMats) get in, or on, us in a high enough dose to cause harm.
• HazMats can have both health dangers and physical dangers.  Health dangers include the material’s toxicity when entering our system and physical dangers include the material’s ability to lead to fire and explosions.

Possible HazMat Situations & Locations

Refinery image courtesy of arbyreed on flickr

• Chemical plants, refineries, factories, treatment plants, construction sites.
• HazMat transport vehicles coming through your area.  These are likely the most common source of these types of incidents.
• Certain household chemicals that when mixed can be toxic – so beware at places like home improvement stores and drug stores.
• Homes and buildings, when on fire, can emit hazardous chemicals – so be careful during overhaul.
• Wildfires require protection from chemical exposure also.
• Natural disasters, like flooding.
• Drug labs, Chemical Suicides, and other routine exposures – as well as surprises like bug bomb explosions.
• Be prepared for anything: whether it’s terrorism, sabotage, or accidents.
• REMEMBER:  every response; fire, transportation, medical, non-emergency incident can involve some form of hazardous materials. Hazardous materials exposures can occur at any time and in any place.

After Identifying Chemicals, have an emergency procedure plan in place

• Know the various classes and emergency procedures that can be used to deal with them: 



Tank trailer hauling bulk corrosives by courtesy of TruckPR on flickr

• Explosives
• Gases
• Flammable and combustible liquids
• Flammable solids
• Poisons
• Radioactive materials
• Corrosives 

• Have resources on hand (in your department library, or via handheld devices in the field) to ID chemicals: 
• NFPA 704: Standard System for the Identification of the Hazards of Materials for Emergency Response 
• Emergency Response Guidebook 
• Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders (NLM) 
• Subscribe to Chemtrec’s services for guidance. 
• Ensure access to the Material Safety Data Sheets. 
• Contact the National Response Center.

• Once presence of chemicals, or possible danger situations are known, take steps to alleviate or minimize exposure through implementations of controls and instigate proper response. 
• Many of these controls must be implemented by the building or locations’ owner, but departments can help or create their own controls. 
• Refer to NFPA 471: Recommended Practice for Responding to Hazardous Materials Incidents 
• When creating plans and strategies, remember that Life Safety is your first priority.

Exposure Routes of Entry

• Inhalation
• Contact
• Ingestion
• Injection

Quick Tips for dealing with Hazardous Materials incidents:

• Know the HAZWOPER regulations that impact the way first responders handle hazmat incidents.
• Identify and detect chemicals involved.
• Keep safe distance from scene.
• Isolate, evacuate, and deny entry to scene.
• Obtain emergency response info for the identified chemical.
• Decide between a defensive and offensive attack.
• Notify those necessary (e.g.: location landlord or owner, employees, anyone in the area that could affected by the incident, as any regulatory agencies that by law need to be notified.).
• Establish an incident command system.

Fire Rescue HazMat Command vehicle image by 111 Emergency of flickr

Exercises

One great way to get your team ready to face these HazMat incidents, and to avoid Chemical Exposure, is to perform training exercises.  These can take the form of tabletop exercises and simulated exercises. 

• CREATING HAZ-MAT CONTAINMENT TRAINING DEVICES - Fire ...
• Homeland Security exercises.

Mutual Aid

Your team also needs to be aware of what other agencies, authorities, experts, and mutual aid groups need to be contacted at these events.  Knowing your areas ICS/Incident Management protocol is imperative.

• Texas Local Emergency Planning Committee
• Work with local authorities to prepare for chemical attacks.

Online Resources to get you thinking

• IAFC’s CO – The Silent Killer online campaign
• Chemical Hazards for First Responders (CDC)
• HazMat Survival Tips (Fire Engineering)

TCFP Library AV items covering these topics

Introduction to HazMat incidents

• HAZCHEM: INTRODUCTION TO HAZARDOUS CHEMICALS  

Incident management and working with other groups

• MASSIVE MUTUAL AID  
• FIRE COMMAND FUNCTION 1: ASSUME, CONFIRM & POSITION  
• I.C.S. THE INCIDENT COMMAND SYSTEM  
• NIMS--INCIDENT COMMAND SYSTEM FOR THE FIRE SERVICE  

HazMat Awareness

• HAZMAT REFRESHER COURSE, PART1: FIRST RESPONDER AWARENESS LEVEL  
• HAZMAT/WMD AWARENESS  
• CLANDESTINE DRUG LABS: MULTI-AGENCY AWARENESS & OPERATIONS  

Identifying HazMats

• HAZMAT INCIDENT MANAGEMENT STEP 2: IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM  
• HAZMAT OPERATIONS 2: HAZMAT CONTAINERS  
• HAZARDOUS MATERIALS IDENTIFICATION  

Initial Response to HazMat incidents

• HAZMAT OPERATIONS 1: RECONNAISSANCE  
• CHLORINE EMERGENCIES: AN OVERVIEW FOR FIRST RESPONDERS  

Library Print Items

These are available for borrowing if you’re in the Austin area. 
Call us at (512) 936-3833 to reserve your copy today.

• Hazardous Materials: Regulations, Response, and Site Operations
• Hazardous Materials Handbook: Awareness & Operations Levels
• Hazardous Materials Incidents
• Hazardous Materials Air Monitoring and Detection Devices
• Hazardous Materials Response Handbook in print and CDROM
• Hazardous Materials for First Responders
• Firefighter’s Handbook of Hazardous Materials

Remember…

Do not rely on just one reference when dealing with HazMat incidents.  Check and cross check reference your findings and contact local experts for assistance.

Next week we’ll focus our blogpost on working with local facilities and groups to prevent HazMat incidents and plan for any that might occur.  Later in the month we’ll focus on what you can do to prevent Chemical Exposures if you do take part in a HazMat incident, namely using proper PPE and following decontamination techniques. Stay tuned….

Does your department hold the reference materials mentioned and, if so, are you utilizing any new high-tech tools to access this information?

Has your department performed simulated or tabletop exercises to prepare for these types of incidents?  Do you feel prepared?