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Acute Chemical Incidents With Injured First Responders, 2002-2012

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2017

Natalia Melnikova ,
Jennifer Wu ,
Alice Yang  and
Maureen Orr
Natalia Melnikova*
Affiliation:
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Division of Toxicology and Human Health Sciences, Environmental Health Surveillance Branch; Atlanta, Georgia
Jennifer Wu
Affiliation:
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Division of Toxicology and Human Health Sciences, Environmental Health Surveillance Branch; Atlanta, Georgia
Alice Yang
Affiliation:
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Division of Toxicology and Human Health Sciences, Environmental Health Surveillance Branch; Atlanta, Georgia
Maureen Orr
Affiliation:
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Division of Toxicology and Human Health Sciences, Environmental Health Surveillance Branch; Atlanta, Georgia
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Natalia Melnikova, MD, PhD, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Division of Toxicology and Human Health Sciences, Environmental Health Surveillance Branch, 4770 Buford HWY, Building 102, room 1408, Atlanta, GA 30341 (e-mail: [email protected]).
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Abstract

Introduction

First responders, including firefighters, police officers, emergency medical services, and company emergency response team members, have dangerous jobs that can bring them in contact with hazardous chemicals among other dangers. Limited information is available on responder injuries that occur during hazardous chemical incidents.

Methods

We analyzed 2002-2012 data on acute chemical incidents with injured responders from 2 Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry chemical incident surveillance programs. To learn more about such injuries, we performed descriptive analysis and looked for trends.

Results

The percentage of responders among all injured people in chemical incidents has not changed over the years. Firefighters were the most frequently injured group of responders, followed by police officers. Respiratory system problems were the most often reported injury, and the respiratory irritants, ammonia, methamphetamine-related chemicals, and carbon monoxide were the chemicals more often associated with injuries. Most of the incidents with responder injuries were caused by human error or equipment failure. Firefighters wore personal protective equipment (PPE) most frequently and police officers did so rarely. Police officers’ injuries were mostly associated with exposure to ammonia and methamphetamine-related chemicals. Most responders did not receive basic awareness-level hazardous material training.

Conclusion

All responders should have at least basic awareness-level hazardous material training to recognize and avoid exposure. Research on improving firefighter PPE should continue. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:211–221)

Keywords

first responderhazardous materials trainingchemical incidentinjuriespersonal protective equipmentsurveillance
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , April 2018 , pp. 211 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2017 

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