Checkout  

 
                                                  SORRY, PARDON OUR CONSTRUCTION.
                                                                
                                                
                                                           HAZMAT Know for the Common Joe
 
What exactly is a hazardous material? The standard definition comes from the Department of Transportation (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is:
“A hazardous material is asubstance or material capable of posing an unreasonable risk to health, safety, or property when transported in commerce.” Realize that this is only one
government agencies definition for hazardous material. Other agencies have slightly different definitions and have different terms like hazardous substances (EPA), extremely hazardous
substances (EPA), and hazardous chemicals (OSHA). The terms and definitions have different meanings for different applications. The main point to understand is the material would
pose a risk or threat to the health or safety of people or could potential damage property.

Okay, now that you know what is a hazardous material (HAZMAT) is, how does it affect me? HAZMAT is found everywhere. HAZMAT is carried on most major routes of transportation.
It would affect anyone who lives near a manufacturing facility, chemical plant, water treatment facility, or has chemicals in their house. Yes, I bet you have HAZMAT in your house, check
around and look for things like aerosol cans of hairspray or deodorant, nail polish or nail polish remover, toilet bowl cleaners furniture polishes, and etc. For more information on household
chemicals check out our Household Chemical Safety section. 

Millions of tons of HAZMAT are carried along the highways, railway, waterways and airways every year. Realize that these materials are not just thrown into a container and shipped
wherever. There are specific containers that must be utilized for specific materials. Take semi trucks for example, there a many various containers HAZMAT could be shipped in such as
non pressure trailers, low pressure trailers, corrosive liquid tank or cryogenic liquid tanks to name a few. Railcars are also broken down into similar categories. Once these shipments are
loaded, on trucks for example, their clearly marked so trained responders can identify what is inside the shipment if an accident happened. On waterways and airways, shipments are
restricted and only specific chemicals and substances can be shipped.
 
 
Where is HAZMAT shipped to? There are a multitude of places everywhere from:
·         Manufactures
·         Warehouses
·         Tank farms
·         Hospitals
·         Truck terminals
·         Laboratories,
·         Commercial store

In the world that we live in, there is no way to get around not being around HAZMAT. So now that we have given a little background on HAZMAT. Two main questions usually
come up at this point:
·         What happens if there is a spill or accident that involves HAZMAT?
·         How do I find out if there is any HAZMAT being store by where I live, work or where my kids go to school?
 
So what happens if there is a spill, who responds to the incident scene? Who is there to help the common Joe?
The helpers of the communities for HAZMAT are you local responders:
·         Police departments - typically handle the securing the scene and in some cases may be the lead agency in warning local residents of the pending hazard(s).
·         Emergency medical services (EMS) - will obvious provide medical support and may assist with removal of patients from contaminated areas, depending on their training.
·         Fire Departments – in most communities handle the majority of the responses for the HAZ MAT. They typically have the most HAZMAT training, the detection devices
and materials to stop and mitigate the hazard.
·         Emergency Management – while not your typical first response agency, the emergency manager will typically provide plenty of background support and coordination of
resources assist the responders in handling the incident.
NOTE: There are other agencies that are involved with a HAZMAT response but these are typically your primary players that will get involved with HAZMAT incident.
Not just anyone can respond to a HAZMAT scene. The responder must be trained in how to handle the situation. These responses must have more planning involved then just
running up to a crash scene and rescuing the truck driver. The responders have to consider their safety and the safety of others in a HAZMAT response, not just the driver’s safety.
With that in mind, there are four main types of HAZMAT training that have been established by the National Fire Protection Association. These are as follows:

·         HAZMAT Awareness Training Responder is trained to a level where they can recognize a HAZMAT incident has happened, keep people away from area, and notify
additional help to respond to the handle the incident.

·         HAZMAT Operations Training Responder is trained in defensive operations. This means that they can decontaminate other responders and performing damming or d
iking operations to stop a hazard from flowing outside the intended containment area.

·         HAZMAT Technician Training Responder is trained in offensive operations. These are the personnel that going in the highly contaminated area and stick their finger
in the barrel to stop it from leaking. They really do not stick their finger in there, but there job is to stop the leak and determine what has spilled and how it may affect life
and property.
·         HAZMAT Incident Commander Level Responder is the individual in the leadership position that makes the command decisions and is ultimately responsible for what
happens at that scene.

This HAZMAT training classes are just the beginning after these responders can be received even more specialized training on responding to railcar incidents, other specific
types of containers and so on. 
 
HAZMAT responses do not just require plenty of training but also require a lot of specialized equipment. Here we will discuss just some of the equipment utilized in a HAZMAT response. Realize that note every response agency in every jurisdiction will each piece of this equipment. This equipment is very expensive and will take additional training for personnel to get initially trained, maintain this training and responders may even have to get train in how to maintain and calibrate the equipment. Again this is just some of the standard HAZMAT equipment:
·         Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) includes both personal protective clothing and respiratory protection. Adequate personal protective equipment should protect the respiratory system, skin, eyes, face, hands, feet, head, body, and hearing. This equipment can range from the typical work clothing worn with hearing, eye and hand protection to a Level A Suit, which is fully encapsulated suit that required a self contained breathing apparatus (SCBA). Working in a Level A suit cannot not be far off from working in a spacesuit. A Level A suit has no holes, cuts, exposed seams or anything else that would let air inside.
·         Air monitors are used by the HAZMAT responders to tell them what chemical are present in the atmosphere. How much of the chemical is in the air? This will allow other responders to calculate with current weather information where the hazard may be going and whom to warn.
·         Chemical Classifiers are used to collect samples of a spill and dip chemically reactive paper to see how the chemical reacts with the paper. This reaction will potentially identify what the liquid hazard is that was sampled.
·         Portable Showers and Decontamination Pools are utilized by the HAZMAT Technicians and Operations personnel to ensure that all contamination has been removed. Thus afterwards the responders can safely take off protective suits outside the danger zone and not having any illness or bad effects from the chemicals they were exposed to.