Emergency Response

[VERNIG.PETER@forum.va.gov]

{Original Msg: 'Re: Emergency Response Procedures' from <root@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
{
{In reply to Randy Ross' message about holding emergency response exercises
{being more useful than having posters or booklets about emergency response:
{Keep in mind, Randy, that I was talking about laboratory personnel (the people
{who might spill something) rather than emergency responders (the people who
{come after something has been spilled).  We have a few hundred laboratory wor-
{kers with a fairly high rate of turnover; Idon't believe that we can practical-
{ly conduct emergency response exercises for all those people.  Please note that
{we do discuss emergency response in our initial radiation safety training
{classes.  However, people going through the class aren't going to memorize the
{emergency response numbers, and during an incident or emergency, they may be
{flustered and forget some of the critical things they ought to do.  I think
{that is the purpose of such a poster, and consequently I think a well thought
{out poster or chart can be very valuable.
{
{Sue Dupre/Princeton University
 
 
We post a simple set of phone numbers.  Rad spill - RSO, Chem -
Safety I.H., biohazard - infection control.  We have a detailed
emergency preparedness plan.  The after hours spills of all kinds
are given to the MAA, sort of a duty officer.  He again has a list
of the home phone numbers to call.  Our system still needs work.
Infection Control is not oriented very well to emergency response and
is not integrated at all with Safety or Rad Safety.  We should also be
cross training each other.  I would be called for someone dropping
LSC vials but if they were a xylene or toluene LSC fluid they would
really be more of a chemical hazard.
 
A number of chemical incident fiascos have lead us to contract for
emergency response rather than call the Fire Dept.'s Hasmat team
which is free.  A short example - 500 milliliters of benzene were
spilled on the 9th floor, which is essentially a research area.
Since we had nobody trained for SCBA use we called the Fire Dept.
Note benzene has a low TLV (threshold limit value) so OSHA rules,
I beleive require either SCBA or testing to show it is below TLV
befor response.  Don't know if we can or did test.
Anyway on Fire Dept.'s walkie talkies 500 mls became 500 liters
and one TV sTation broke into their evening news cast to say our
whole hospital (one wing of one floor actually) had been evacuated
due to a 500 liter benzene spill.  Now that was not really the
Fire Dept. fault.  But because of that and other more serious
incidents we decided that you get what you pay for and as I 
said have a contract for chemical response.
 
 
 
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