Mass Alert Done Right
- By Jerry Laws
- May 01, 2008
Hearing U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard
Investigation Board member William
Wark’s Feb. 28 speech at the ISNetworld
users group conference in Dallas confirmed
my fear that we aren’t prepared for serious
chemical leaks. By “we” I mean the public, but
Wark also meant the employees who are shipping
these materials and processing them.
He mentioned process safety failings that
he said CSB has found are common in many
plants: delayed or undone maintenance,
incomplete analysis of process hazards,
ignored and unenforced procedures, and poor
or nonexistent public notification of hazardous
processes and stored chemicals.
“We’re finding all over the country that
there’s not the type of off-site planning with
the community, with facilities, that should be
done,” said Wark, who said he is working with
CSB’s staff to produce a video on emergency
planning preparedness that he hopes will be
used nationwide to address this problem.
His point about public ignorance of chemical
threats in our midst is proven by any
number of investigations and emergencies
that make the news. Many factors are at work,
from the huge number of U.S. shipments in
all modes to public apathy. These movements
are nearly invisible to us, as are improvements
in the process: DHS chief Michael Chertoff
told a group of bloggers in March that the rail
industry has dramatically shrunk the time railcars
loaded with toxic chemicals sit idle. Who
knew? (A week earlier, Association of American
Railroads President/CEO Edward Hamberger
urged the nation’s big chemical companies
to stop making dangerous chemicals that
can be replaced by safer substitutes or new
technologies currently in the marketplace. He
cited chlorine gas, noting some water utilities
are instead using liquid bleach or ultraviolet
light. “If chemical companies would take that
step . . . railroads would no longer be required
by the federal government to transport some
of the most highly toxic chemicals around the
country. Millions of Americans who live in
cities or towns near chemical plants or railroad
tracks would be safer,” Hamberger said.)
Here’s an additional factor: emergency
communications that have not kept up with
the times. CDW Government Inc.’s online
survey of 1,448 people in the 20 largest U.S.
metropolitan areas found 36 percent rated
their cities’ emergency communications good
or very good. Two-thirds (66 percent) said
they did not know whether their cities have
mass e-mail or text messaging in place. “Traditionally,
TV and radio have been the principal
means of communicating emergencies
out to the public. But communication means
have changed, and the mobility of the public
is much greater now,” said Joe Mangano,
CDW-G’s field sales manager in the eastern
United States for state and local governments.
“The governments out there are starting to
add the different means. Surveys like ours are
giving them the public feedback that I think
they’re looking for,” he added. “What we’re
seeing is that we want to try to drive information
to them without having them have to log
in or be watching or listening.”
AAR and CDW-G are right. If we listen,
we’ll all be much safer.
This article originally appeared in the May 2008 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.
About the Author
Jerry Laws is Editor of Occupational Health & Safety magazine, which is owned by 1105 Media Inc.