Hazardous materials disaster planning

Levitin, H. W., Siegelson, H. J. (1996). Hazardous materials Disaster medical planning and response. Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America, 14(2), 327-347. 

We pointed out earlier that most emergency plans address fire, medical emergencies, and the accidental release or spills of hazardous materials. Note that the development of emergency response plans should also factor in other possible emergencies— natural disasters, floods, explosions, and/or weather-related events that could occur and certainly will occur. Now, emergency response to terrorist activity or threats must also be added to the list. 

With the constant threat of accidental releases of hazardous materials and the potential use of chemical weapons by terrorists, local emergency response providers must be prepared to handle victims who may be contaminated with chemical substances. Many local jurisdictions have developed hazardous-materials (HazMat) teams, usually composed of fire and paramedical personnel who are trained to identify hazardous situations quickly and to take the lead in organizing a response. Health care providers, such as ambulance personnel, nurses, physicians, and local hospital officials, should participate in emergency response planning and drills with their local HazMat team before a chemical disaster occurs. 

This paper describes the MIRADCOM Propulsion Facility Plan, the work flow process, the safety factors that must be considered and the primary organizations that assist in insuring that hazards are kept to an absolute minimum. Safety considerations become a consideration at the initiation of a concept and is a constant partner until the missile is phased out of the inventory. It is only by such constant attention that operations with such materials and devices can be performed without incurring disaster. 

There has been considerable concern throughout Europe about the incineration of wastes, yet in Japan about 70% of all MSW is incinerated, and plans are that this should increase to 90% by the year 2000 [33]. Incinerators that are poorly operated may run at temperatures too low to burn potentially hazardous intermediates of the combustion process such as the products from pyrolysis which are believed to be the precursors in the combustion processes [34]. Of particular concern has been the discovery of extremely toxic materials such as dioxins (chlorinated dibenzo-/ -dioxins and benzofuran dioxins), in the flue gases of some incinerators. Such is the level of concern that many European countries have increased the legislative and environmental controls on incinerator operators, and some are moving to ban the incineration of plastics [35], and particularly PVC. In incinerators where the temperature is below about 1400 K, dehydrochlorination of PVC occurs, accompanied by the formation of polyenes. The polyenes can then cyclise and be oxidised, and then be attacked by chlorine-containing species to produce dioxins, the most toxic of which is 2,3,7,8-tetra-chlorodibenzo-/7-dioxin (TCDD), the material at the centre of the disaster at Sveso, Northern Italy, in 1979. More than 70 dioxins are known to exist (Figure 13.11). 

The South Asia Disaster Report (DNS and PA 2005) states that disasters are produced due to the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of communities, countries, and structures to withstand encountered hazards. Wisner et al. (2004) defines vulnerability as the lack of capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist, and recover from the impact of a hazard. The destruction and loss of human hves from the 2005 Kashmir Earthquake in Pakistan was primarily due to the collapse of inappropriately built structures constructed on earthquake-prone land using substandard building materials and designed with little earthquake resistance. Poorly planned and sometimes illegal developments and their resulting impacts on the environment worsened the damage from the Mumbai Floods in 2005. A similar situation was seen in Sri Lanka after the Indian Ocean Tsunami. 

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