Emergency planning and preparedness for the deliberate release of toxic industrial chemicals

The level of the emergency health workers professionals' knowledge about chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) hazards: The case of Turkey

BACKGROUND

It is crucial that emergency health workers respond to people exposed to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear agents appropriately and in a timely manner.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to find out how much Turkish emergency health workers know about chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear hazards, as well as identify what possible factors contribute to their level of knowledge.

METHOD

The data were collected from 321 participants using a personal information form as well as a questionnaire about chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear hazards prepared in accordance with the literature.

RESULTS

The results revealed that the place of residence and status of choosing the profession willingly showed no difference in terms of being trained on chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear hazards (p >  0.05). Likewise, the participants under the age of 25 years, who were single and had a tenure of less than 10 years highly believed that they did 'not have a sufficient grasp of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear hazards'. Women also highly believed that they did 'not have a solid grasp of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear hazards.'

CONCLUSIONS

Healthcare professionals who work in high-risk zones should be given compulsory training about chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear hazards so that they become more aware of how to best deal with such situations.

Global event-based surveillance of chemical incidents

BACKGROUND

The number of chemicals in our society and in our daily lives continues to increase. Accompanying this is an increasing risk of human exposure to and injury from hazardous substances. Performing regular, structured surveillance of chemical incidents allows a greater awareness of the types of chemical hazards causing injury and the frequency of their occurrence, as well as providing a better understanding of exposures.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of performing event-based surveillance (EBS) and capturing chemical incidents is to use this information to increase the situational awareness of chemical incidents, improve the management of these incidents and to inform measures to protect public health.

METHODS

This paper describes a method for EBS for chemical incidents, including the sources used, storing the gathered information and subsequent analysis of potential trends in the data.

RESULTS

We describe trends in the type of incidents that have been detected, the chemicals involved in these incidents and the health effects caused, in different geographic regions of the world.

SIGNIFICANCE

The methodology presented here provides a rapid and simple means of identifying chemical incidents that can be set up rapidly and with minimal cost, the outputs of which can be used to identify emerging risks and inform preparedness planning, response and training for chemical incidents.

The Role of a Regional Poison Center in Assessing and Managing Disaster Risk

The United States constantly faces the threat of large-scale disasters caused by natural and human factors. Emergency medical services, other first responders, and emergency department professionals are responsible for triaging and caring for victims of mass casualty incidents that include biological, chemical, and radiological agents. These providers need immediate access to individuals with expertise in infectious disease, medical toxicology, and biological, chemical, and radiological exposure who are readily available or easily accessible in the event of an emergency. Poison centers play a key public health role during disasters, in part because of the specialized training staff-including medical toxicologists-receive in all facets of toxic exposure risk identification, assessment, and management, which are foundational areas critical to disaster health response. Integrating poison centers into the public health infrastructure and public health surveillance is crucial for disaster response. Through enhanced partnerships with public health agencies, poison centers have leveraged their readily accessible expertise and surveillance capabilities to expand their roles in disaster planning and response. This paper highlights the pivotal role the Nebraska Regional Poison Center plays in preparing for and responding to disasters and other public health emergencies at local, state, and regional levels. With an emphasis on its role in risk assessment and management in partnership with healthcare coalitions and public health departments, we recommend the Nebraska Regional Poison Center as a model to inform other poison centers across the United States.

Research on Safety Regulation of Chemical Enterprise under Third-Party Mechanism: An Evolutionary Approach

In recent years, China’s chemical industry has incurred frequent safety accidents which seriously impact the social environment and public safety. Traditional approaches have reached a bottleneck due to a lack of relevant professionals in the government regulation of chemical enterprise safety production. Thus, a new safety regulation mechanism should be conducted. In this paper, we constructed an evolutionary game model of chemical industry safety regulation based on limited rationality, and the influence of main parameters on the equilibrium evolution process is studied by system dynamics simulation. The results show that government regulation authorities play a leading role in the process of chemical industry safety regulation and increasing punishment will help to achieve an evolutionary stable strategy (ESS). What is more, the feasibility and effectiveness of the third-party regulation service mechanism are verified, and the market access threshold of third-party regulation service needs to be improved to stop the occurrence of rent-seeking activities in the regulatory process. In summary, the introduction of third-party regulation service entities to the chemical industry safety regulation process has far-reaching implications for promoting the healthy development of China’s chemical industry.

Factors influencing recovery and restoration following a chemical incident

Chemicals are an important part of our society. A wide range of chemicals are discharged into the environment every day from residential, commercial and industrial sources. Many of these discharges do not pose a threat to public health or the environment. However, global events have shown that chemical incidents or accidents can have severe consequences on human health, the environment and society. It is important that appropriate tools and technical guidance are available to ensure that a robust and efficient approach to developing a remediation strategy is adopted. The purpose of remediation is to protect human health from future exposure and to return the affected area back to normal as soon as possible. There are a range of recovery options (techniques or methods for remediation) that are applicable to a broad range of chemicals and incidents. Recovery options should be evaluated according to their appropriateness and efficacy for removing contaminants from the environment; however economic drivers and social and political considerations often influence decision makers on which remedial actions are implemented during the recovery phase of a chemical incident. To date, there is limited information in the literature on remediation strategies and recovery options that have been implemented following a chemical incident, or how successful they have been. Additional factors that can affect the approach taken for recovery are not well assessed or understood by decision makers involved in the remediation and restoration of the environment following a chemical incident. The identification of this gap has led to the development of the UK Recovery Handbook for Chemical Incidents to provide a framework for choosing an effective recovery strategy. A compendium of practical evidence-based recovery options (techniques or methods for remediation) for inhabited areas, food production systems and water environments has also been developed and is included in the chemical handbook. This paper presents the key factors that should be considered when developing a recovery strategy with respect to how these may impact on its effectiveness. The paper also highlights the importance of these factors through an evaluation of recovery strategies implemented following real chemical incidents that have been reported in the literature.

Chemical Hazards Emergency Medical Management (CHEMM)

The Chemical Hazards Emergency Medical Management (CHEMM) website from the National Library of Medicine is designed for first responders and medical providers who are planning for and responding to chemical hazards events. It includes pages tailored to the individual interests of specific groups, including first responders, health care providers, mental health professionals, toxicologists, and more. The featured decision support system CHEMM Intelligent Syndromes Tool allows users to identify the chemical a patient was exposed to in a mass casualty event.