P. Manske, Long Island Rail Road, Hollis, NY; D. Cupriks, The Louis Berger Group Inc., New York, NY; J. Reiman, Laboratory Safety Services Inc., Butler, NJ.
WITHDRAWN
E. Esswein, NIOSH, Denver, CO; J. Snawder, C. Striley, G. DeBord, E. Kennedy, NIOSH, Cincinnati, OH.
Illegal production and use of methamphetamine — in particular, the resultant cleanup of clandestine labs ľ continues to pose significant occupational health hazards to police, fire, social services, and other professionals and emergency responders. Industrial hygienists are increasingly involved in methamphetamine contamination assessments as well as the degree and extent of decontamination/remediation. Numerous studies have documented that widespread contamination from methamphetamine aerosols occurs not only after illegal manufacture (“cooking”) but also when the drug is smoked, a common method of use. Indoor surface contamination of methamphetamine residues can range from the tens to the tens of thousands of micrograms per 100 cm2. While surfaces contaminated with methamphetamine residues pose mainly dermal exposure risks, inhalation is also possible from methamphetamine particulates reaerosolized from floors and horizontal surfaces, furnishings, and virtually anything (including pets) found inside a building where methamphetamine residues have deposited. NIOSH scientists began development of sensitive and specific and real-time surface wipe sampling methods following a 2003 joint field study involving the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, the Tri-County Health Department, the NIOSH Denver field office, and the North Metro Drug Task Force in the Denver, Colorado, area. The NIOSH project goal was to develop easy-to-use, real-time, surface detection methodologies to identify methamphetamine surface contamination, thus alerting police, firefighters, and other first responders to exposure risks. This presentation will discuss two new surface detection technologies — colorimetric and immunochemical methods — for methamphetamine that have been developed by NIOSH. The colorimetric method allows users to collect wipe samples that give an immediate reaction with less than a 20-µg limit of identification. The immunochemical method has a limit of detection as low as 50 nanograms.
M. Gillen, NIOSH, Washington, DC; W. Sieber, J. Bennett, S. Shulman, NIOSH, Cincinnati, OH; B. Pulsipher, J. Wilson, L. Sego, B. Matzke, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA.
NIOSH investigators successfully used professional judgment to quickly identify the presence of Bacillus anthracis contamination during the 2001 anthrax incidents. However, there is value in having supplemental probabilistic sampling options available to evaluate whether contamination is present in certain hypothetical cases, such as when incident details are unavailable or uncertain. As noted by the Government Accountability Office, these options are also appropriate in cases where judgmental sampling results are negative but where statistical inferences are needed to increase confidence that contamination is not present. This presentation describes a cross-disciplinary effort under way to develop a toolkit to facilitate field investigators with developing a site-specific probabilistic sampling strategy. It will address (1) specific scenarios; (2) how the approach incorporates targeted judgmental sampling insights to determine the number of probabilistic samples; (3) the software being used to incorporate building plans, assist investigators, and reduce time needed to overlay a grid on building spaces for probability sampling and documentation purposes; (4) steps that the user will follow; (5) plans for evaluating the tool; and (6) the potential for secondary benefits for users with other scenarios.
J. King, Intel Corp., Chandler, AZ.
As public health concerns for a potential influenza pandemic continue to escalate, many corporations have developed plans to minimize the impact of such a scenario on their work force and operations. While Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the SARS epidemic served as a call to action for corporate emergency preparedness and business continuity planning, the prospect of a pandemic has taken such planning to a new level, based on management, employee, and shareholder expectations. This presentation will provide an overview of the corporate pandemic planning process at a large multinational corporation, describe the challenges that have been addressed, and showcase the unique contributions that the industrial hygiene (IH) function has provided. From advice on personal protective equipment (e.g., N95 respirators), hand sanitizers, and infrared thermal imaging devices for point-of-entry screening to the prudent practice of cleaning and disinfecting bird roosting areas/feces, the IH function has clearly demonstrated its added value to the multidisciplinary process of corporate pandemic planning.
S. Thomas, Oregon OSHA, Salem, OR.
Under international treaty, the U.S. government is required to destroy the nation’s stockpile of chemical weapons. This disposal process is managed by the U.S. Army’s Chemical Materials Agency. In response to concerns raised by local communities, the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) was developed and is managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). CSEPP focuses its efforts on the development and implementation of community action plans in the event of an accidental chemical release.
This presentation outlines the methods that are employed near the Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon to develop and implement community action plans; the infrastructure necessary to allow computer modeling as a primary exposure assessment tool; how these programs are implemented through first-responder agencies; and how the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division (OR-OSHA) has contributed to this process. In 1996, OR-OSHA began working with local communities; it played a critical role in the development and implementation of community action plans to guide first responders and the community safely through a critical event. Using advanced computer modeling software, threat assessment strategies, a unified command structure, and state-of-the-art communications equipment, first responders are able to strategically develop threat assessments, effectively evacuate or isolate layers of the community, and safely respond to real-time emergencies concurrently with a critical event. CSEPP communities continually enhance programs to facilitate multicommunity evacuations and the processing and decontamination of mass casualties. Rescues or recoveries related to a chemical release could require a multiagency response that may last for an extended period of time. The success of the operation requires support services for threat assessment and tracking, adequate personal protective equipment, and common communication for all jurisdictions.
P. Tranchell, Soaring Eagle Safety Consultants, Clay, NY; W. Blank, Boston Dynamics, Boston, MA; D. Bushman, Sensis Corp., San Jose, CA.
Emergency response training often lacks the hands on experience that reinforces the classroom instruction. This is due to the lack of emergencies to test those skills. Hands-on equipment use and periodic drills help reinforce the skills acquired during technician-level training. Such training is practically nonexistent at the awareness level. Under a federal contract, a program was funded to develop awareness-level training for skilled support personnel. The lecture portion of the class was reinforced using computer simulations in a gaming environment. Three simulations were included to allow students to use their training in a safe and portable situation. This first simulation was designed to be supported by more student-to-instructor interaction. This aids the students in understanding how to function in the simulation while achieving the simulation learning objectives. Learning objectives deal with applying the classroom instruction in a realistic emergency situation. The second simulation was designed to be more challenging but still allowed for instructor interaction in completing the scenario. This simulation allows continued learning while beginning to test the student’s response to more difficult decision-making conditions. The final simulation is where the students solo through the scenario and are expected to know how to fully function in the simulation, performing the functions in a way that reflects their knowledge of the course material. The last scenario is a pass-fail test of their ability to apply the course information in a simulated situation. Feedback from students in the pilot program highlighted the value of the computer training in building student knowledge. Follow-up testing measured the success of this training tool by how well the students retained their knowledge over a period of time.
M. Bernard, U.S. Coast Guard, Seattle, WA; L. Weems, U.S. Coast Guard Sector Baltimore, Baltimore, MD.
The recent megadisasters have abruptly reminded all safety and health professionals that they need to be able to respond quickly and decisively to ensure the safety of the victims and responders. Accordingly, there is a vital need to begin preplanning for a worst-case scenario response now, determining the equipment and personnel that will be required. This type of planning allows the safety officer to have safety assistants (SAs) as well as equipment and resources ordered and under way as first responders move toward the disaster site. In particular, having SAs in the field — assessing and working safety issues in line with the safety officer’s initial site safety plan — is critical to establishing a safety-conscious environment from the onset of the response. This measure ensures that the adrenaline charged atmosphere does not impede common sense and the use of best work practices. These deliberate, preplanning practices were successfully put to the test during the recent Hurricane Katrina response and recovery efforts. This presentation addresses the preplanning that should be done by safety officers to ensure the best response possible. This preplanning includes understanding the role of and being able to serve as the safety officer within the incident command system; providing preincident training for safety officers; ensuring the ability to deploy immediately to a response; knowing how to procure and deliver resources and personal protective equipment in a devastated area; developing contact lists for safety and environmental health specialists; having a basic understanding of how infrastructure is set up (e.g., sanitation, water, and food); and knowing how to provide the subsequent environmental health needs for personnel working and living in the field.