Health and Safety in Emergency Management and Response

Dana L. Stahl

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781119561101
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Terrorism
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book familiarizes personnel serving as Emergency Managers, Safety Officers, Assistant Safety Officers, and in other safety-relevant Incident Command System (ICS) roles with physical and psychosocial hazards and stressors that may impact the health and safety of workers and responders in an All-Hazards Response, and ways to minimize exposure. This book provides knowledge on regulations and worker safety practices to the Safety Officer with an emergency responder background, and provides the tools for the Safety Officer with an industrial hygiene or safety professional background that help them be successful in this role. In order to work together effectively, it is important that anyone responding to an emergency be familiar with all standards and protocols.

1
Safety in Emergencies and Disasters

1.1 Introduction

Employers must develop numerous workplace safety plans in order to meet Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements. One element of an occupational safety and health plan is the Emergency Action Plan, or EAP. This plan describes what employees are expected to do in an emergency. This primarily involves developing and implementing an emergency evacuation plan, including identification of exit pathways, post‐evacuation meeting areas, means to make sure everyone got out safely, and a plan to notify emergency responders if someone was not able to exit the facility and needs help to do so. Certain employees may be assigned to assist with critical operations before exiting, but for the most part, the response to the emergency is carried out by incoming emergency responders.

These plans work because we have resources in our local emergency response departments who are trained and capable of rescuing injured personnel and responding to the emergency. People who work in fire departments or in law enforcement enter hazardous locations when everyone else leaves. When emergency responders show up at our homes or workplaces in this capacity, it is generally because something bad has happened. This bad thing that happens may make this event the worst day of our lives. However, to the emergency responders who show up, this is just a typical day of work.

People who become emergency responders must have a higher personal risk tolerance than that required in many other occupations. Work that is performed in an office setting, for example, has an inherently lower risk. For emergency responders, the reward of the job must outweigh the potential risk of injury, or illness, or worse. An element of self‐selection exists in these fields: During training, trainees must come face to face with the hazards of the job and learn how they react to facing these hazards. Those who find that they are not up to facing these risks choose to pursue other lines of work.

Although emergency response is a hazardous occupation, appropriate training for personnel who are equipped with appropriate tools and equipment, and appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), can reduce, or at least, minimize responder injuries and illnesses. Training, practice, and experience build capabilities necessary to perform this work safely every day.

In a large‐scale or community‐wide emergency, local emergency response resources may be insufficient to meet the needs of the response. Personnel from occupations such as construction have skills that can supplement work done by emergency responders. The Incident Management Team might request these personnel and the equipment they are trained to operate as resources. In other situations, especially when members of a community are involved, volunteers will show up at the scene in the absence of a specific request because they feel compelled to help members of their own community.

Certain emergencies, for example, a mass casualty incident in a large facility such as a stadium, a train derailment, or hazardous materials response to a chemical processing plant that is subject to OSHA's Process Safety Management Standard present unique hazards that emergency responders do not face in their ordinary day‐to‐day work. Personnel who work in a chemical processing plant, for example, have knowledge and information that is critical for incoming emergency responders. Ideally, the plant operators and local emergency managers and emergency responders need to work together to develop plans to integrate response and share information when an incident occurs. Plant operators, for example, have subject matter expertise that is critical to the response. These plant operators need to be prepared to participate when an emergency incident happens, despite the fact that incident response is outside of their core day‐to‐day responsibilities.

1.2 9/11 Response

The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 exceeded all planned capabilities. Until this date, the United States had not faced an event of this magnitude, and indeed, few could have imagined one. More than 2700 people died in the attacks at the World Trade Center (WTC), including more than 300 firefighters and 50 police officers. In the days that followed, jurisdictions across the United States sent firefighters, emergency medical responders, rescue workers, and other personnel to assist in the response. Industrial hygienists from the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and state occupational safety and health agencies across the United States responded to help with air monitoring and respirator fit testing. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent personnel to collect air samples. Construction workers responded to move debris. Volunteers responded as well, including members of churches and community organizations, and people who were present in the area immediately after the attacks.

All responders were exposed to multiple health and safety hazards. In addition to the safety hazards one might expect when working around unstable rubble, responders witnessed horrific events, including finding dismembered human remains and watching bodies falling from the towers. Responders worked in a dust cloud of pulverized building materials. The composition of the dust that workers were exposed to during this initial response is essentially unknown, as few measurements were taken, and the composition of the dust likely changed as the response progressed. However, we do know that settled dust included pulverized concrete (and silica), gypsum, fiberglass, metals and sheet rock, asbestos, and plastics. Combustion products contained volatile organic compounds (VOCs), soot, metals, acids, and other toxics, and this may represent the composition of the dusts that workers were exposed to.

Although an effort was made to provide respirators and fit test responders, actual respirator use was sporadic. When decontamination systems were set up, they were often not used, allowing workers to track contaminants offsite. Many workers were untrained in the type of work they were performing and on the hazards they faced [1].

Today, many 9/11 responders suffer from chronic health conditions. The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Action of 2010 (Zadroga Act) signed into law by President Obama on 2 January 201...